ART CITIES:London-Luciano Fabro
In 1958, after he saw Lucio Fontana’s work at Venice Biennale, Luciano Fabro moved to Milan where he spent the rest of his life pursuing his artistic career. Luciano Fabro created new possibilities, combining a prodigious variety of materials and techniques with new forms and addressing classical themes such as the relationship between sculpture and architecture and the tension between the weight, balance and density of the sculpted object.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Simon Lee Gallery Archive
An exhibition with historic works from the early ‘60 by Luciano Fabro is on presentation at the Simon Lee Gallery in London. On presentation are early works which were conceived as instruments for developing a reflection on perception, works which explore a sensual experience of color and material and works inspired from personal memory, history or mythology revealing Fabro’s richness of imagination, as the artist said “I want to do something very complex, but presented in a simple way. Within this simplicity you must be aware of the complexity. This is what Arte Povera is about”. This is evident in one of his first works, “Tubo da mettere tra i fiori” (1963-2001), it was a site-specific installation designed for a Milanese garden, even if it was never displayed there. In the work, a metal bar placed amongst an assortment of plants appears to provide a sense of order lacking in the natural world and bridges the divide between the natural and the artificial, positioning the artist directly at the forefront of the Arte Povera. In “Ruota” (1964-2001), a stainless steel circle is welded to an arm hinged from the wall of the gallery. The diameter of the arm is equal to the circumference of the hoop, which appears to roll towards the ground, thanks to the flexion of its support. Interrogating the relationship between space and structure, “Croce” (1965-2001), closely engages with the location in which it is installed. In “Squadra” (1965-2001) two tubular segments are fixed to each other at right angles, attached to the wall by the horizontal. Although rigorously square in advance of its installation, once in place its angles become obtuse as a result of the weight of the freestanding vertical rod. “Asta” (1965-2001) is a metal pole that hangs from the ceiling, falling short of the floor by a few centimetres. Set at an incline of one degree from the perpendicular, in this deviation from the straight line the viewer finds a subtle movement, only distinguishable from certain positions. In a later steel work of the same period, “Contatto. Tautologia” (1967-2001), a straight blade is fixed at either end of different walls. The viewer’s gaze is directed towards the middle of the pole, where it has been cut cleanly in two, leaving a noticeable divide. Also are shown four glass works from the 1960s that Fabro re-visited from 2004-2007 and which manifest a continuation of the artist’s early experiments with perception and illusion. “Buco” (1963-2005), is a sheet of mirrored glass decorated with a transparent design. At eye height the pattern gives way to a mirrored expanse, as though a hole in a net. “Tondo e rettangolo” (1964-2004) explores the inverse relation of a round mirror set within a transparent plane of glass to an adjacent transparent circle of the same proportions. “Mezzo specchiato mezzo trasparente” (1965-2007) demonstrates Fabro’s ongoing investigation into the interaction between reflection and non-reflection, in the final work in this series “Tutto trasparente” (1965-2007) on the entirely clear pane of glass, Fabro noted, ‘”The material is neutral, it is the attention with which it is charged that transforms it”.
Info: Simon Lee Gallery, 12 Berkeley Street, London, Duration: 30/11/17-6/1/18, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.simonleegallery.com
