Born in Mazara del Vallo (Sicily) in 1920, Pietro Consagra is one of the leading Postwar Italian artists. After attending the Accademia di Belle Arti in Palermo, Consagra moved to Rome in 1944 and met artists such as Giulio Turcato, Mario Mafai and Renato Guttuso. He then travelled to Paris where he first came in contact with the ideas of the international avant-gardes. Consagra soon started to develop his conception of the avant-garde that took the shape of bi-dimensional sculptures known as ‘Colloqui’.

With the rise of Pop Art and with Rauschenberg’s victory at the 1964 Venice Biennale, Consagra underwent a period of crisis and soon started to create oil and enamel paintings. While he is better known for his sculptures, his paintings are fundamental in the development of his artistic career as they led him to a significant turning point. After a period of experimentation, Consagra conceived the series Sculture colorate e bifrontali dei piani sospesi (coloured and bi-frontal sculptures of suspended planes) and Ferri trasparenti (transparent irons), which created a direct connection with the ideas of Pop Art.

Made in 1996, Three Images on a Dark Background (Tre immagini su fondo scuro) looks back to that pivotal period. With its lively colours and with its bold materiality, the work presented here reflects his Ferri Trasparenti and Sculture colorate, and thus becomes a perfect synthesis of Consagra’s most significant themes.