País Rojo Teti 1949

Xul Solar made this odd watercolor in 1949, and it's a weird little world. It’s full of tan-orange mountains with faces and ladders, with a sky of apricot. I love to think about how these works come into being, with trial, error, intuition, and a willingness to play around with the unknown. I can only imagine Xul Solar in his studio thinking, what if mountains had faces? What would that even mean? And then, oh, let’s throw in some ladders, because why not? The paint is thin, watery, and the marks are delicate. It feels like he built this world one gesture at a time. The way he used color makes the mountains look soft and inviting, despite the slightly creepy faces. I love how artists are always talking to each other across time. Solar’s strange world reminds me a bit of Paul Klee's dreamscapes, where the familiar becomes alien. Painting, like any form of expression, embraces ambiguity and uncertainty. It allows for multiple readings. It's never fixed, always moving.