ART-PRESENTATION: Ettore Spalletti
Ettore Spalletti’s paintings and sculptures are a combination of the two media, since his paintings protrude from the wall and his sculptures are often covered in monochromatic paint. Each work is the result of a meditative but rigorous process of applying a layer of colou at the same time of each day, to capture a specific tone that recalls an hour, a season, and the weather.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Marian Goodman Archive
Ettore Spalletti’s solo exhibition “Ce qu’il y a de plus profond dans l’homme, c’est la peau” occupies both the main space and the library of Galerie Marian Goodman in Paris. Ettore Spalletti is one of the most singular voices of the Italian artistic scene after the WW II, an artist who went through the seasons of Arte Povera and the return to painting in the early 1980’s maintaining an absolutely individual position, and developing a body of works that combine the memories of ancient and modern art, from Piero della Francesca to Giorgio Morandi to Lucio Fontana. In the main space of the gallery, Spalletti introduces the latest works from his “Paesaggio” series and new sculptures. The “Paesaggio” paintings, each consisting of multiple monochromatic panels, recall both the present and remembered landscape of Abruzzo, where the artist has lived and worked his entire life. Centrally installed between two “Paesaggio” paintings is a new coral-coloured diptych, angled away from the wall. Its gold-leaf framing structure bring the panels further forward, endowing the work with a sculptural and kinetic presence. The free-standing sculptures in cubic form quietly dictate how we navigate the gallery space diffused with luminescent warmth. The adjacent gallery presents an installation of new works in the artist’s signature azure blue. These three works resist identification as a perfect square through the careful subtraction of a small corner from each. Such a formal and deliberate intervention is a reminder that a painting is a sculptural object itself and equally that a three-dimensional structure is composed of two-dimensional aspects that function as blank canvases. Concurrently on display at Librairie Marian Goodman is a selection of new works on paper that echo Spalletti’s early mountain paintings, which are considered the starting point of the “Paesaggio” series. Light-handed color pencil and pastel drawings, they depict fragments of Abruzzo’s nature in a delicate balance between figurative and abstract.
Info: Galerie Marian Goodman, 79 rue du Temple, Paris & Librairie Marian Goodman, 66 rue du Temple, Paris, Duration 20/4-26/5/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.mariangoodman.com
