Lot 18 : Emilio Vedova (b. 1919)
Auction Location: United Kingdom - 2005
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Artist or Maker:
Emilio Vedova (b. 1919)
Title:
Ciclo 1961 - S2
Description:
Ciclo 1961 - S2
signed, titled and dated 'Ciclo 1961 - S2 Vedova Venezia' (on the reverse)
oil and newspaper collage on canvas
57 1/4 x 78 3/4 in. (145 x 200cm.)
Executed in Venice in 1961
Provenance:
Acquired from the artist by the present owner.
Exhibited:
Portofino, Emilio Vedova, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, August-September 1978.
Braunschweig, Kunstverein, Emilio Vedova, December 1981-February 1982.
Notes:
THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
There is a sensuality to the textures and colours at play in the maelstrom-like oils of Ciclo 1961 - S2 that recalls his earliest and greatest influence - Tinoretto. Its composition is packed with rich movement and drama. This work is part of a groundbreaking series entitled Ciclo that Vedova created during the early 1960s and in which he finalized what was to become almost immediately his signature style, as was to be reflected in the international recognition and success that his work now increasingly garnered.
Despite the superficial similarities to Abstract Expressionist paintings of the seemingly gestural swirls of paint, Ciclo 1961 - S2 is also packed with symbols and meaning. The vitality and the movement of the artist is a central theme in Vedova's paintings, condensing life onto the canvas. But equally important is the role of language and meaning. Ciclo 1961 - S2 is a dense mesh of symbols, each superseded by another, a build-up of information. Various forms in this work hint at letters, at signs, teetering on the brink of recognition, each one shattered and dissolved by another form and another colour just as the viewer approaches the cusp of comprehension. There are shades of geometry in the blasted forms of squares and circles, Vedova pointing to the imprecise means of communication that they all represent, be it under the guise of science, mathematics or language. Vedova's painting is an assault on the human need to quantify and to specify, an attack on the literalistic sciences that promised so much and yet, as was clear in an age of increasing anti-nuclear protest, had delivered so little.
Vedova's Ciclo 1961 - S2 explores and exploits the limitations of the human condition, the limitations of all communication that are inherent in modern life. The gestural application of the paint, the frenetic energy perceptible in the surface of the canvas, shows the artist himself struggling against this condition, his picture a doomed effort to communicate. As is clear in the balanced composition and dynamism of Ciclo 1961 - S2, there is little space for the random, for chance, in this painting: 'If you look at the tension in my bursting signs,' Vedova has stated, 'it is easy to label them Informel! But that is superficial. These works are structured - and these are the structures of my consciousness' (quoted in Emilio Vedova, exh. cat., Frankfurt, 1989, unpaged). However, it is precisely the subjectivity of Vedova's consciousness as captured in these signs, symbols and structures that is stressed: Ciclo 1961 - S2's engaging oils captivating the viewer while highlighting the fact that every message in life finds itself flawed.
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