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Lot Essay
‘Pictorial experience is by its nature tied to the perception of space through the sensation of 'colour' (light) and 'form' (drawing and composition), which introduce in the observer the special characteristics as well as the formal and chromatic physiognomy of the image’
P. DORAZIO
‘I would like not to reproduce but to reinvent the structure of light in a way pertinent to painting rather than to optics’
P. DORAZIO
For Piero Dorazio, the genius of the Futurists remained the bench-mark for Italian artists working in the Post-War period. He had rediscovered the art of Giacomo Balla following the Second World War, and actively sought out the renowned painter in Rome in 1950. Recalling their first meeting, Dorazio wrote: ‘It so happened that, one day in March of that year [1950], while out walking with the sculptor Edgardo Mannucci, as the first lukewarm sun caressed Rome, we noticed a little white-haired man seated on a small wall of the garden behind Castel Sant’Angelo. Tugging on my jacket, Mannucci told me: “Look! See there, he’s Balla!” And so we approached to greet the Master painter…. Thereafter, we went visiting him several times at his “Futurist Home”, located in Via Oslavia. With the help of his daughters, we looked for the paintings of his “heroic” years and we found there a lot of them, rolled up into packages and stored on a mezzanine in the kitchen. We opened them, and what a surprise! His forgotten Futurist masterpieces were there: “Compenetrazione iridescente”, “Mercurio passa davanti al sole”, “Velocità d’automobile più luce più rumori”, “Pessimismo-ottimismo”.’ (Dorazio, ‘Tre foglie d’oro per le figlie di Balla,’ in Rigando Dritto: Piero Dorazio Scritti 1945 – 2004, ed. M. Mattioli, Milan, 2005, p. 139). He visited the artist’s studio often, studying his paintings and sketchbooks first hand, discussing the theories, techniques and history of the Futurist movement with Balla and developing a close relationship with the painter and his family. These experiences left an indelible impression on Dorazio, and he remained a devoted follower and supporter of Balla for the rest of his life.
Painted in 1961, Il Rosso di Sotto echoes the dynamism of Balla’s Futurist compositions, as Dorazio uses an abstract interplay of lines to explore the perceptual phenomenon of light. Using red as a base pigment, the artist layers a seemingly infinite series of delicate, thin lines over one another to create an intricate web of overlapping ribbons of pure colour. The result is a kaleidoscopic, vibrating mass of lines, which appears to oscillate before the viewer, the bars of colour shifting and moving before the eye, vibrating towards and away from the front of the canvas as they overlap and converge on one another. Modulating the density and thickness of the lines and gradually altering their orientation to one another, Dorazio plays with the sensations of vision, imbuing his abstract composition with a sense of life and velocity.
P. DORAZIO
‘I would like not to reproduce but to reinvent the structure of light in a way pertinent to painting rather than to optics’
P. DORAZIO
For Piero Dorazio, the genius of the Futurists remained the bench-mark for Italian artists working in the Post-War period. He had rediscovered the art of Giacomo Balla following the Second World War, and actively sought out the renowned painter in Rome in 1950. Recalling their first meeting, Dorazio wrote: ‘It so happened that, one day in March of that year [1950], while out walking with the sculptor Edgardo Mannucci, as the first lukewarm sun caressed Rome, we noticed a little white-haired man seated on a small wall of the garden behind Castel Sant’Angelo. Tugging on my jacket, Mannucci told me: “Look! See there, he’s Balla!” And so we approached to greet the Master painter…. Thereafter, we went visiting him several times at his “Futurist Home”, located in Via Oslavia. With the help of his daughters, we looked for the paintings of his “heroic” years and we found there a lot of them, rolled up into packages and stored on a mezzanine in the kitchen. We opened them, and what a surprise! His forgotten Futurist masterpieces were there: “Compenetrazione iridescente”, “Mercurio passa davanti al sole”, “Velocità d’automobile più luce più rumori”, “Pessimismo-ottimismo”.’ (Dorazio, ‘Tre foglie d’oro per le figlie di Balla,’ in Rigando Dritto: Piero Dorazio Scritti 1945 – 2004, ed. M. Mattioli, Milan, 2005, p. 139). He visited the artist’s studio often, studying his paintings and sketchbooks first hand, discussing the theories, techniques and history of the Futurist movement with Balla and developing a close relationship with the painter and his family. These experiences left an indelible impression on Dorazio, and he remained a devoted follower and supporter of Balla for the rest of his life.
Painted in 1961, Il Rosso di Sotto echoes the dynamism of Balla’s Futurist compositions, as Dorazio uses an abstract interplay of lines to explore the perceptual phenomenon of light. Using red as a base pigment, the artist layers a seemingly infinite series of delicate, thin lines over one another to create an intricate web of overlapping ribbons of pure colour. The result is a kaleidoscopic, vibrating mass of lines, which appears to oscillate before the viewer, the bars of colour shifting and moving before the eye, vibrating towards and away from the front of the canvas as they overlap and converge on one another. Modulating the density and thickness of the lines and gradually altering their orientation to one another, Dorazio plays with the sensations of vision, imbuing his abstract composition with a sense of life and velocity.