Sculpture of Araucan Types of Chile, Portraits and Drawings by Urbici Soler of Barcelona, June 1-July 1, 1931

Urbici Soler was a Spanish-born American sculptor and art educator known for Christ the King, a monumental statue of Jesus on the cross atop Mount Cristo Rey in the El Paso suburb of Sunland Park, New Mexico, which he completed in 1939.

Soler was born in Farran, Lerida, in Catalonia, Spain on June 21, 1890. In 1896, his family moved to Barcelona, Spain, where he entered the studio of Don Pedro Carbonell. At 17, the International Exposition of Art of Barcelona accepted his work for exhibition. Also at this time, he and some fellow artists formed a private art school, “The Agrupación de Artistas,” which included the best painters of the time, Picasso, Anglada Camarasa, and others. Soler also studied at the Escola de la Llotja in Barcelona.

In 1912, Soler became a student of Adolph von Hildebrand in Munich, Germany. In recognition of his success in Germany, he was appointed director of a school of sculpture where he gathered students from all over the world. He completed his first monumental sculpture, Princess María de la Paz, in 1918. He left Germany in 1920 and met Emile Antoine Bourdelle in Paris before returning to Spain to complete a commission for the city of Barcelona in 1921. He completed a monument in Madrid in 1922 before he was called to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1926 for a commission. He also traveled to Chile to study the native peoples of the region and became fascinated with Araucanian of South America, who became a favorite subject of his. His exhibition at the Legion of Honor took place during a trip through the United States where he desired to also study Native peoples of North America.

Soler was twice married, including a brief marriage in 1940 to Bettie Binkley of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Neither marriage was successful. He then moved to New Orleans, California, New York, and South America in 1943, returning to El Paso in 1945 to attempt further work on Christ the King, and joined the faculty of the Texas School of Mines, now called the University of Texas at El Paso. He became a US citizen in 1949. Soler built a house at the foot of Mount Cristo Rey in New Mexico and lived there until his death on January 15, 1953.

Sources:
Artist biography. Sculptures, Portraits, and Drawings by Urbici Soler, June 1-[July 31], 1931 Legion of Honor Exhibition Records, LH-ER. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Archives.
Wikipedia contributors, ""Urbici Soler i Manonelles,"" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Urbici_Soler_i_Manonelles&oldid=1079030967 (accessed May 2, 2022).