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argentina republic

Drago

Watercolor on paper by Xul Solar, 1927. A serpentine dragon rendered in Xul's distinctive style: flat planes of saturated color, invented script-like inscriptions, and geometric patterning derived from a fusion of Aztec codices, European heraldry, and theosophical symbolism. One of Xul's most celebrated individual works, it encapsulates his pan-Latin American mythological vision.

Scholarly Significance

Xul Solar's Drago — canonical Argentine visionary painting; BFA pioneer axes: iconography (esoteric/cosmological syncretism).

Notes

  • ·Drago is one of Xul's most frequently reproduced works and appears in retrospective catalogues as a signature piece.
  • ·The invented inscriptions draw on Xul's Neo-Criollo language experiments.
  • ·Theosophy and Kabbalistic traditions inform the cosmological symbolism.
  • ·Jorge Luis Borges, who admired Xul deeply, described his paintings as populated by 'autonomous creatures of a cosmogony'.