SINCE 2016 HE HAS JOINED RIGORISM, BUT IN HIS OWN WAY. WITH WORKS THAT BLEND ZEN SUGGESTIONS WITH THE RESULTS OF THE MOST TYPICAL WESTERN CONTEMPORARY
In the 60s, Lucio Fontana created a series of works that will become among the most controversial in the history of contemporary art: the cuts. A real revolution that opens the three-dimensionality in painting. From this turning point the work of Nando Stevoli (Ferrara, 1953) is framed. It welcomes the Master’s lesson to go beyond the painting and elaborates it, transforming the canvas with delicate, though rigorous, plissé.
THE FOLDS INSERTED IN MONOCHROME BACKGROUNDS ARE CONTINUOUSLY RENEWED IN EVERY EXECUTION
In 2016, the meeting with the gallerist Flavio Lattuada, founder together with the philosopher Massimo Donà of the current of rigorism was decisive. He joins enthusiastically, but in his own way. He introduces an almost dreamlike perspective, composed, reminiscent of the perfection of origami. The thoughts turn to Japan, to the folding of the fabric of the kimonos, to the essentiality of Japanese homes, to the atmosphere of intimacy and peace of Zen gardens. The folds, inserted in monochrome backgrounds, stand out in light geometries that are continuously renewed in every execution. The animated sequences are lit with ultramarine blue, flaming reds, bright whites. The pleats obey a precise proportional rent. A meticulous attention that not only concerns the effect of the finished work on the observer, but also and above all the technique and precision necessary to reach the goal: it is the gesture itself that leads to reflection.
THE CANVAS BECOMES VOLUME, REPETITION OF JOINT AND RIPPLED LINES BETWEEN LIGHT AND SHADOW
Creations free of material and temporal pretensions come out. They are not painted in a traditional way with colors and brushes. The canvas itself becomes material, the absolute protagonist. It becomes volume in the sinuosity of the curvatures, repetition of joint and rippled lines between light and shadow, where the chromatic drafting is perceived as a focal point, throbbing.
THE ANIMATED SEQUENCES ARE LIT WITH ULTRAMARINE BLUE, FLAMING REDS, BRIGHT WHITES
The luminous trajectories that emerge from the draperies will act as guides for reading these creations that the artist invites to discover from time to time, painting after painting. So Nando Stevoli, in his refined and composed abstractions, is able to combine and merge suggestions that echo Zen traditions with linear shapes, clean and minimal order, typical of the most typical Western contemporary. Not only that: he pushes us to the vision of an open work that captures and forces us to immerse ourselves in the ripples, to go into the mysterious darkness of the furrows to ask ourselves what possible destiny awaits us in that arcane afterlife.
