Paolo Scheggi
b. 1940, Settignano, Italy
d. 1971, Rome, Italy
Intersuperficie Curva dal Rosso (Curved Intersurface from Red)
1965
Acrylic on three overlaid canvases
140 x 105 x 6 cm (55 1/8 x 41 3/8 x 2 3/8 in.)
Provenance
Literature
L. M. Barbero, G. Dorfles, Scheggi. La breve e intensa stagione di Paolo Scheggi, exhibition catalogue, Parma, 2002, p. 168, PS053.
F. Pola, Paolo Scheggi. The Humanistic Measurement of Space, Milan, 2014, pp. 77, 181.
F. Pola, Italian Neo-Renaissance, Bonalumi, Scheggi, Robilant+Voena, New York, 2015, pp. 50, 61, fig. 19.
L.M. Barbero, Paolo Scheggi: Catalogue raisonné, Milan, 2016, p. 259, fig. 65 T 47.
Description
Despite the brevity of his career, Scheggi gained significant international recognition. In 1965, Scheggi had his first international exhibition, and within a short time was involved in projects and shows in a number of countries. He was invited to exhibit at the 1966 Venice Biennale, where he shared a room with Agostino Bonalumi and showed a selection of his Intersuperfici. Though his work had much in common with his Italian contemporaries, it also paralleled trends practiced by the Zero Group artists in Düsseldorf, and by the exponents of Op and Kinetic Art.Scheggi died very young, at the age of only thirty. Nevertheless, his superimposed surfaces not only captivated audiences in 1960s Milan and further afield, but with them he staked a claim upon the aesthetic ground zero to which artists of his generation aspired.
Dating from 1965, a key moment in the artist’s career, Intersuperficie Curva dal Rosso is a dramatic
work on a grand scale. Here, Scheggi has moved beyond the curved forms that previously
characterised his work, employing instead what would become his signature geometric
pattern of circular holes, creating a sense of spatial regularity. The repeated
curves of the round openings, contrasted with the sharpness of the diagonal
pattern created by the second canvas, emphasise the sculptural space that Scheggi
sought to create within his paintings. The wide border surrounding the grid of
apertures acts as a visual pause, giving the work a notable balance between the
dynamism of the openings and the stillness of the framing canvas. Executed in a
vivid red, the painting is a masterwork of balance, tension and materiality,
exemplary of Scheggi’s small oeuvre.
The art historian Eugenio Battisti, along with the critic Germano Celant, was
very enthusiastic about Scheggi’s work. Battisti went on to acquire another Intersuperficie Curva dal Rosso,
which he presented as a gift to the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Turin – a
work with a similar conception to the present painting.
