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Lot Essay
Domenico Gnoli est mort avant même d'avoir 37 ans, laissant derrière lui un corpus de toiles exceptionnelles et de dessins subtils considéré aujourd'hui comme l'un des apports italiens les plus importants au monde artistique de l'après-guerre. Dans ses oeuvres, objets et personnages prennent possession de la totalité de l'espace disponible. Ainsi dans La Taverne, la surface du tableau est entièrement remplie de corps, de tables et de briques rendues de façon obsessionnelle. Accentuant sa vision significative du horror vacui, Gnoli met en avant les murs de la taverne de façon à les rendre oppressant au sein de cet espace, ne laissant aucune place à l'observateur. Le tableau est incroyablement dense y compris le panneau central, le seul où notre regard trouve une échappatoire, en pénétrant dans la pièce par derrière les murs. La nature monochrome et terreuse de cette oeuvre englobe les objets inanimés et les êtres vivants, les confondant tous dans un univers pictural primordial.
Fils d'un historien de l'art, Gnoli suivi une formation traditionnelle de peintre et d'imprimeur. Sans surprise, il maîtrisa la perspective florentine, qui domine cette oeuvre, se focalisant sur un point de fuite placé de façon inattendue plus haut. De nombreux éléments, telle la structure en triptyque et la posture de la femme au premier plan, révèlent clairement l'héritage de la peinture italienne. Cette habilité à rattacher la tradition à un langage visuel contemporain plaça Gnoli au premier rang de la recherche artistique pendant les années 1960.
Domenico Gnoli died just before turning 37, leaving behind him a corpus of rare paintings and elaborate drawings which are today considered one of the most important Italian contributions to the post-war art landscape. Objects and figures in his paintings take possession of the entirety of the available space. In a Taverne, the surface of the painting is completely filled with bodies, tables and obsessively rendered bricks. Accentuating his trademark sense of horror vacui, Gnoli brings forward the walls of the tavern so that they are oppressive within this space, leaving no room for the viewer. The painting is incredibly dense even in the central panel, the only one where our gaze is given an outlet, penetrating to the room behind the walls. The monochrome and earthen nature of this painting extends from the inanimate objects to the living creatures, confounding them all in a primordial pictorial universe.
The son of an art historian, Gnoli had a traditional training as a painter and printer. Unsurprisingly, he mastered Florentine perspective, which rules this composition, focusing upon an unexpectedly high vanishing point. Many elements, such as the triptych structure and the posture of the woman in the foreground, bear clear traces of the legacy of Italian painting. This ability to combine tradition with a contemporary visual language saw Gnoli placed at the forefront of artistic research during the sixties.
Fils d'un historien de l'art, Gnoli suivi une formation traditionnelle de peintre et d'imprimeur. Sans surprise, il maîtrisa la perspective florentine, qui domine cette oeuvre, se focalisant sur un point de fuite placé de façon inattendue plus haut. De nombreux éléments, telle la structure en triptyque et la posture de la femme au premier plan, révèlent clairement l'héritage de la peinture italienne. Cette habilité à rattacher la tradition à un langage visuel contemporain plaça Gnoli au premier rang de la recherche artistique pendant les années 1960.
Domenico Gnoli died just before turning 37, leaving behind him a corpus of rare paintings and elaborate drawings which are today considered one of the most important Italian contributions to the post-war art landscape. Objects and figures in his paintings take possession of the entirety of the available space. In a Taverne, the surface of the painting is completely filled with bodies, tables and obsessively rendered bricks. Accentuating his trademark sense of horror vacui, Gnoli brings forward the walls of the tavern so that they are oppressive within this space, leaving no room for the viewer. The painting is incredibly dense even in the central panel, the only one where our gaze is given an outlet, penetrating to the room behind the walls. The monochrome and earthen nature of this painting extends from the inanimate objects to the living creatures, confounding them all in a primordial pictorial universe.
The son of an art historian, Gnoli had a traditional training as a painter and printer. Unsurprisingly, he mastered Florentine perspective, which rules this composition, focusing upon an unexpectedly high vanishing point. Many elements, such as the triptych structure and the posture of the woman in the foreground, bear clear traces of the legacy of Italian painting. This ability to combine tradition with a contemporary visual language saw Gnoli placed at the forefront of artistic research during the sixties.