Xul Solar Proyecto fachada Delta (Façade Project for Delta) 1954

Proyecto fachada Delta depicts a section of a town suspended on stilts atop a body of water. The image is characteristic of the fantastical cityscapes of Xul Solar (born Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari), whose enigmatic work draws heavily from a variety of mystical, occult belief systems, from astrology to Theosophy and Freemasonry. The ladders that provide access to the structures in this scene recur throughout Solar’s work, serving as symbols for spiritual evolution and transcendence. Beyond such esoteric allusions, Solar’s fictive cities relate to real-world developments: upon his return to Buenos Aires in 1924, after 12 years spent in Europe, Solar encountered a city teeming with dynamism as a result of a boom in construction and waves of immigration from Europe. Solar interpreted the skyscrapers emerging along the city’s skyline as new temples for the modern era and symbols of humankind’s striving for earthly utopia. 
Identification
Title
Proyecto fachada Delta (Façade Project for Delta)
Production Date
1954
Object Number
2012.98
Credit Line
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Jorge M. Pérez
Copyright
© Xul Solar 
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Physical Qualities
Medium
Watercolor and ink on paper
Dimensions
9 3/4 x 14 inches
Visual Description
This art work is composed of what looks to be 3 geometric structures. Each structure is composed of brightly colored stacked squares and rectangles arranged asymmetrically. These structures are held up by stilts, thin light brown sticks that support the structures and serve as boarders for colors and black white patterns that serve as curtains. Some top squares are filled with a checkered pattern composes of 4 black and white squares. From right to left there is a few inches of pale blue sky above and still water below. Yet neither sky nor sea is barely distinguishable from the other. A gradient from blue to greenish grey coat the background. The first two structures surrounded by blue skies fading into the sea while the third comes off of the right hand side of the page. There is a space between each structure which allows the observer to see the pale blue sky in the background. Panning down the structures are united by a diagonally divided rectangle that can be seen as a door way with a curtain pulled to the side. Vertical red squares stand scattered with greens and blue interchange through the colorfully stacked composition. Yellow sticks border the squares as to imply a wooden support system. Yellow squares or doors line the top of the 3rd structure, the very first square from left to right placed at the lower third of the composition as a rectangle with a window to the upper right corner of this yellow rectangle. Exactly adjacent is a red rectangle with a centered door. This wall is centered by a rectangular opening topped by a blue spaced filled with a small figure with ring atop his head resembling a halo. The figure has raised arms. In the foreground of this door is a stick composition forming what may be a ladder or staircase. Three staircases are presented as entry points for each building structure. Other rectangles and stick arrangements have a door or window, square or rectangle alike. Each stair case stick structure face the audience and widen towards the bottom of the composition. Placing the structures further from the audience as the stairs are in the foreground it seems the audience is at a lowered view point of this apartment landscape. These 3 structures fill the composition with two full structures and one shows only a third of the structure. About a dozen visible stilted legs hold up all three buildings. The last structure is a third visible to the observer with an orange triangle pointing up encompassed by blue in a rectangle shape. This arrangement tops a doorway. This first square serving as the bottom level of the last building from left to right is followed by a red rectangle and half a window visible. Two rectangles are diagonally divided in color at center. These two Pale yellow and maroon rectangles stand on either side of a red wall or larger rectangle with a blue door or centered blue rectangle. This blue center rectangle is topped with a window filled with a plaid patterned curtain. This window is topped by a triangle shape formed by the implication of parted curtains. This triangular shape is filled with what seems to be a figure. This blue wall is placed left of the first of yellow and maroon diagonally divided squares bordering the large red square which in turn centered in the composition in the bottom third of this horizontal pan view position. Three or four rectangles and squared top this first level with the stick foundational structure forming a cross hatch pattern throughout the composition. With the size decreasing towards the top squares and smaller scaled horizontal rectangles lining the uneven roof tops.
Xul Solar

Xul Solar

b. 1887, Buenos Aires; d. 1963, Buenos Aires

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