Italian Zest

Remember a while back when we presented all the Italian Artists? Well, I've still got a file or two left with some great work to share.

This is Agostino Ferrari. If you go Here, you'll see examples of his work from 1960, up though the 90's. It's quite an interesting visual journey. There's not a whole lot of images to weigh you down. In fact there are few enough to simply act as a teaser. But we can see his progression of ideas and experiments and finally he settles in on calligraphic gestures with a dynamic and minimal palette in the 80's.

These two works are 20 years apart and quite dramatic and different in their approach. The bottom image, "Evento F" 1986, is from Caldarelli.it where you'll find those examples of his works through the years. What a grand and theatrical presentation of calligraphic gesture ! It's as though we're looking at 3 actors on a stage. He's definitely come to a place where simple gesture can be and is the sole content in a work.

Then, 20 years later in 2006 he makes (top image) "Oltre la soglia", acrylic and sand on canvas. This image is from Artantide, where you can see lots of images of his work. You can click for EN (English), but it doesn't translate everything. So we're still left in the dark about his motives. But in this red piece, it's looks as though he's taken a red piece of paper with bold calligraphy, torn it and then arranged those pieces into a collage. It's a sly bit of Trompe L'Oeil, but it's still all about the calligraphic gesture that provides the basics for the painting.

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Another site you'll want to check out that has many images is Centrosteccata. Although it's all in Italian, you'll thrill to seeing the zest and gusto and vibrancy he presents through his work; becoming a real virtuoso with calligraphic gesture from the 80's, clear through to 2006.