Palacios en Bría 1932

Xul Solar made this painting, Palacios en Bría, with watercolors, and it feels like a dreamscape, doesn’t it? The shapes are so crisp and geometric, like a city built from children's blocks. The surface is flat, and the colors are laid down in transparent washes. You can almost feel the paper underneath. It’s a deliberate choice, I think. There’s no attempt to hide the hand, no bravura brushwork. But in the upper right, a face stares out, made of flat planes. Is it watching, judging, or just part of the scenery? Think of Paul Klee, with his playful abstraction and symbolic language. Both artists were tapping into a kind of visual poetry, where colors and shapes become characters in a story. We’re invited to imagine the story; there’s no beginning, middle, or end, just a feeling, a mood, a place where the imagination can wander freely.