Xul Solar on Language as Unity
In order to fully understand the concepts within Xul Solar’s magical realist, baroque paintings, it is important to know specific details about his life. Xul solar happened to be a very curious man who studied Buddhism, the Jewish Cabbala, philosophy, anthropology, astrology and the duodecimal system. To top it off, he was fluent in Sanskrit, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, English and Greek (Hommage). Given this information, it is clear that Solar was obsessed with knowledge and understanding the world around him in all of its diversities and complexities. Solar viewed a fusion of various irreconcilable worlds as the key to understanding the world around him. He would fuse these worlds through language. His love of knowledge and understanding of the importance of unity led him to create a language of his own. His emphasis on unity and language was even seen in his paintings that often contained words. One example of this is in his painting titled Façade Project. His emphasis on the importance of unity was shown in small-scale paintings that contained larger than life concepts in order to stress the importance that each small detail of life played in unifying to create and understand the whole. Solar’s use of language as a unifying force will be discussed throughout this essay.
Solar viewed language as the main vehicle for unity. Solar states, “I am the creator of a universal language ‘pan lengua’ based on numbers and astrological signs that will help people to know each other better(Solar).Solar’s newly invented language represented a fusion of various languages to invent one ambiguous and unifying language that crossed cultures, artistic genres, religious concepts, and sciences. Solar first invented a language, which was a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese (Xul). However, he later invented a language that would encompass the languages, cultures and symbols of the world. This second new language would combine the visual arts with mathematics, astrology and music (Xul). Solar’s intent was to create a new language that would erase boundaries existing between opposing worlds. It is important to note that each department that made up Solar’s language was universal and something that all cultures were able to connect with. Everyone, no matter what culture can feel music and mathematics is something that simply exists within nature. Mathematics is by default universal.
Like his language, Each of Solar's paintings seems to give the impression that it unifies with various other pieces (or paintings) in order to create something larger (such as infinity or the never-ending sky). One example of this is a painting titled Desarrollo del Yi Ching, whose setting is space. The objects within the painting are in a constant and quick, upward flow as if they are reaching some unknown destination that our eyes can’t see and that the human mind is unable to grasp. Many of the objects themselves cut off at the edges of the painting to give the impression that there are various other unseen parts that this painting unifies with to create the whole. The destination of the objects is hidden from our view. It is also important to note that space(or infinity) is itself all encompassing in that it contains and unifies each of the pieces that it exists within. This painting says to us that it takes the unity of various parts to understand the whole. Not only was this unity seen within his paintings, It was also seen within his newly invented language.
Solar’s theory on languages and the use of language within his paintings was heavily influenced by the Cabalists who represented the world and universe as God by using numbers, letters and their interrelations (Solar). Cabalists believed that material things were a mirror image of the supernatural and extra-terrestrial but only on a smaller scale (Solar). They also believed that everything was interconnected in some way. For instance, the self, mundane objects, the spiritual realm and the extraterrestrial were all believed to be unified or connected and affect one another in some way or another. According to a German poet whose work Solar translated “the world is only a form of man (Solar).” This quote represents one of the many concepts behind Xul Solar’s paintings. They represented the larger world on a smaller scale and the ways in which the two intersected. Solar’s buildings often multiplied and became smaller the further away they were in order to give an impression the never-ending, distant and remote concept that we label infinity. His architectures often contained faces to convey a sense of humanity. His sky scrapers were often diaphanous and intersected to give the impression that they (like human beings) contained souls. Given this, it is clear that Xul solar expressed the importance of unity and the effect it had on the universe, not only through his language, but through his paintings. To Solar, unity was the force that coerced the hidden world to reveal itself to the naked eye. In other words, it was the number one ingredient of knowledge and understanding.
The Cabala influenced Solar’s paintings in that he often represented the larger world within the smaller world on small scale paintings. He also represented the larger world within the small by using objects and symbols. His techniques often expressed the importance of the material and its connection to both the "human self" the "spiritual self", and the extraterrestrial world through symbols as explained earlier. This can also be seen in the painting titled Drago which contains various flags. Flags are nothing more than symbols represented various countries.
Astrological and Cabalist influences are also seen in Desarrollo del Yi Ching which consists of several zoidac signs. The stars (the extraterrestrial and remote realm)in the painting even unify to create images of human beings. This gives the impression that the self(human beings) and the extraterrestrial are connected. His paintings also reveal “the soul” within mundane and material objects through architecture. Architecture (one of the many objects that constitutes mundane, everyday life) was often presented as a metaphor for humanity and the spiritual, mystic, extraterrestrial and remote realm . One example of this can be seen within Solar’s Building(Bau) series. One of the buildings is wearing clothes just like an ordinary human being.
