Mestizos de Avión y Gente 1936

Editor: Here we have Xul Solar’s “Mestizos de Avión y Gente,” painted in 1936. I’m really drawn to the sort of dreamy, fantastical quality of the imagery, but what strikes me is the blend of what seem to be mechanical elements with organic shapes and figures. How do you interpret this work? Curator: The collision of the organic and the mechanical, exactly. This piece really begs us to consider the materials and processes behind it, and also its cultural moment. Solar was invested in utopian projects, but also aware of the socio-economic realities of interwar Argentina. Notice the recurring wheels: Are these symbols of progress, or perhaps industrial labour literally being co-opted into flight? Editor: So the mechanical bird-people figures… are they perhaps about the industrialisation of the country, and the artist’s complex relationship to that? I see a lot of different media were supposedly used - watercolor, pencil, possibly oil pastel… Does that also hint at accessible and local resources that reflect Argentinian culture and the reality of its society in the 30’s? Curator: Precisely. Consider that watercolor and coloured pencil were often associated with "lesser" art forms, things made for pleasure. How does Solar blur these boundaries? Are the recurring rectangles paper airplanes or are they building blocks? It forces us to question established categories of "high" and "low" culture, much like how he examines the relationship between "mestizo" cultures as the artwork's title refers. What statement does it make that people on the ground all look fairly alike? Editor: It’s like the people and the materials used in the artwork are reflective of the same level, unified at ground level as raw elements to create something complex and beyond the canvas' physical existence! I see so much more now about his creative approach, his production, his resources. Curator: Exactly! It's about dismantling hierarchies – in materials, in class, in cultural identity itself, just as much as it is a futuristic image.