This exhibition is based on research into fundamental decades in Italian painting, and takes its title Esprit de géométrie from the writings of Blaise Pascal. Italian post-war art is nourished by a constant inner tension between rationality and passion, between geometric spirit and the instinct to seek transcendence. In this sense, it is a plastic representation of the dilemma posed by Pascal; the pictorial challenge posed by this apparent dualism underpins the artistic research of many of the protagonists of the revolution that began with Futurism.
In defining the transition from the figurative to the non-figurative, Enrico Crispolti highlights «three great seasons of research: the first through the various phases of Futurism’s long creative vicissitude, between the 1910s and the early 1940s; the second, in the formulation of a ‘’concrete’’ abstraction, in the mid-1930s, with renewals in the second half of the 1940s and developments throughout the 1950s and beyond; the third in the sphere of proposals relating to informalism, at the end of the 1940s and into the 1950s.»
In Enrico Prampolini’s works, such as Cassandra (1945), the only one where we still find a form of figuration, we perceive the influence of Cubism. Prampolini refers to these theories through the simpli- fication of female body shapes and the thick lines that mark their contours. These works foreshadow Prampolini’s move towards abstraction.
Ten years later, in Mauro Reggiani’s Composizione n°4 (1954) and Composizione (1956), no figures or objects are represented. Drawing on the lessons of Vassili Kandinsky and inspired by the rural landscapes surrounding his native village of Nonantola, Reggiani set about schematizing geometric forms, working on perspective and depth through a multiplication of chromatic nuances.
This same schematization can be found in Alberto Magnelli’s work after the Second World War. Présence profilée – La ferrage (1956) and Conception dirigée – La ferrage (1968) are two works that refer to the farm in the south of France where the artist took refuge during the conflict, accompanied by his wife and Jean and Sophie Taeuber Arp. In comparison with Reggiani’s works, the chromatic choices are more subtle. Beiges, grays and whites are articulated on flat surfaces in the ‘50s, then evolve into a search for depth in the ‘60s.
This same profile of nuances is also to be found in Achille Perilli’s paintings, where the influence of his Parisian encounters comes to the fore. Indeed, the black lines that trace the blue, grey and brown rectangles of Oggi, oggi, oggi (1955) pay homage to the teachings of Cubism and the desire to deconstruct pictorial spaces.
In Mario Nigro’s work, lines are the protagonists for their ability to define space and time. The artist experimented with bright colors, as in Distruzione (1956), where he played with optical effects and vibrations through two different vanishing points. At the end of the ‘60s, Nigro’s paintings were emptied of all color, and his fine black lines developed on white monochrome backgrounds, L’invasione (1969).
This idea of the white background is also present in the works of Gualtiero Nativi, who for two decades superimposed different shades of solid color one on top of the other in search of movement, recalling both Futurist and Bauhaus theories. The forms created by Nativi are complex, as in Forma chiusa (1964) and Scontro (1965), and are articulated in large formats.
For artists of this generation, the experimental aspect develops through different approaches to abstraction, but also in the materials used. Luigi Veronesi bears witness to this with Legno colorato (1977), a colored wood collage in which shapes and colors are obtained from wood in its natural or treated state.
Through the exhibition Esprit de géométrie en Italie 1940-1960, the Tornabuoni Art gallery offers a rediscovery of the protagonists of Italian abstraction in the 40s and 60s through the prism of each artist’s French experience.
The exhibition focuses on the fundamental steps that enabled the artist to move beyond figuration towards abstraction. Alongside internationally renowned artists whose work has been exhibited at MoMA or the Centre Pompidou, such as Alberto Magnelli, the exhibition features other artists who have won critical acclaim in Italy and whom Tornabuoni Art, in keeping with its tradition of promoting Italian art, wishes to make more familiar to the French public.