Fausto Melotti

Collection of the artist, Milan
Galleria dello Scudo, Verona
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1997

Milan, Galleria dell'Ariete, Melotti, 1971, no. 5
Parma, Università di Parma, Sala delle Scuderie in Pilotta, Fausto Melotti,1976, no. 67, illustrated
Lugano, Studio d'arte contemporanea Dabbeni, Fausto Melotti, 1984, p. 11, illustrated
Venice, Palazzo Fortuny, Fausto Melotti, 1990, p. 160, illustrated
Valencia, IVAM Centre Julio Gonzàlez, Melotti, 1994-1995, p. 165, illustrated and p. 188
Verona, Galleria dello Scudo, Fausto Melotti Teatrini 1931-1985, 1997, p. 111, no. 31, illustrated

Abraham Marie Hammacher, Melotti, Milan 1975, no. 32, illustrated
Germano Celant, Melotti Catalogo generale Sculture 1929-1972, Milan 1994, Vol. I, p. 170, no. 1966 1, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the illustration fails to convey the three dimensionality of the work. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals a small repair to the lower right brass element.
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 "In the teatrini, I didn't want to abandon the rigorous idea of a counterpoint, but instead I wanted to create something in a sense figurative, shifting it however to a metaphysical abstract setting". (Fausto Melotti in: Catalogo Generale, Fausto Melotti, Milano, 1994, vol. 1, p. XIV).

 

A contemporary and friend of Lucio Fontana, Fausto Melotti similarly looked to challenge the precepts of pictorial convention by skirting the boundary between art and life, typically conjuring architectural spaces in which painting, sculpture, music and literature coalesce to form a synthesis between the figurative and the abstract.  Belonging to a series referred to as teatrini (or small theatres) initiated in the mid-1940s, L'Africa, dated 1966 is an extraordinary exemplification of the celebrated transgressivity of Melotti's oeuvre.  Described by Abraham Marie Hammacher as "transitional forms", the teatrini represents the very epitome of this central conceit (Abraham Marie Hammacher, Melotti, Milano, 1975, p. 18). 

 

Said to stem from a tribute to the statues by the figurative Italian sculptor Arturo Martini, the teatrini evidence a compositional format chiefly articulated in Martini's choice of medium, clay.  A response perhaps to Martini's own crisis as a sculptor at the dawn of the twentieth-century, Melotti opens up a new territory for non-figurative-figurative sculpture in the associative and dramatic potential offered by the disparate elements of his architectural stage-sets.  Redolent of a "playful touch and a poetic imagination" this work comprises a juxtaposition of small elements and diverse materials including cloth, gauze, metal and glass articulated within a brightly coloured geometric framework, organised by the mathematical principle of the golden section. (Klaus Wolbert, 'Rigor and Rationality – Poetry and Playfulness, Fausto Melotti and Modernism in Italy', in Exhibition Catalogue, Duisburg, Institut Mathildenhohe Darmstadt Wilhelm lehmbruck Museum, Fausto Melotti: Retrospektive 1928-1986, 2000, p. 10).  The resplendent colours enliven the various forms and surfaces, investing a joyful stage-presence within the delineated 'theatre' of Melotti's invention.  Indeed, Melotti's teatrini act as metaphysical arenas where "colour is not objective colour, but an indication of atmosphere" (Abraham Marie Hammacher, Melotti, Milano, 1975, p. 18).  In L'Africa, clay figurative elements sit alongside metallic sculptures, enacting "condensed stories which do not show an episode from a series of scenes, but a psychological event, which conjures up a situation rather than the movement or progression precisely by the absence of any action or gesture." (Ibid.).  In this respect, Melotti's work strikes a delicate balance between the realms of the physical and metaphysical. 

 

Having previously integrated the archaic influence of Ancient Greek and Egyptian sculptures, the present work from Melotti's late oeuvre evidences a celebration and integration of the aesthetic values associated with African art.  Constructed from humble materials, the present work represents a celebration of North Africa, a place Melotti was particularly captivated by during the 1960s.  While also reminiscent of Africa in the organisation and choice of colour bands, Jole De Sanna likens the colourful bands to Jasper Johns's Flag and the mass influence of 1960s Pop icons (Jole De Sanna, "Commentaries on selected works", in Exhibition Catalogue, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi, Fausto Melotti, 1999, pp. 215-16).  De Sanna also relates this work to a later sculpture by the artist: Notte Africana (1973) held in the artist's own collection.  Not only do the two explore the same subject, Africa, but they also demonstrate a similar engagement in the courageous use of bright colours, which in turn evoke the post-impressionist painting of Henri Matisse (Ibid, p. 215-16.).  According to German Celant: "The teatrini exert the same inconsistent fascination of dreams" (Germano Celant, Melotti – Catalogo Generale, vol. 1, Milano, 1994, p. XIV): these works elude a unilateral all-encompassing interpretation, imparting the viewer with the evanescing impression of an interrupted dream.  A sum of elusive multivalency; the rising sun, seductive shape of a hidden ballerina, and empty balcony found in Teatrino-Africa engenders an intensely thought-provoking symbolism of magnificent artistic scope.