Antonio Calderara - Spazio, colore, luce
Antonio Calderara
Spazio, colore, luce
1971/1973
6-part work: each oil on wood. Each 54 x 27 cm. Framed together under glass 72 x 195 cm. One panel monogrammed, dated and inscribed 'A.C.12-71.73' verso on wood. - Minor traces of age.
“My painting is logical, guided by a central theme, namely: light. My painting has its origin in my essential need for light; a light that—not yet aware of its significance—is already a tentative expression in my earliest paintings, a light that becomes clearer to me and in itself with each passing moment, until it becomes the sole, conscious, and responsible driving force of my painting. As a thought matures, germinating slowly like a seed—painting has opened itself to the problems of synthesis, simplification, emptiness, and monochromaticism, in order to arrive at that extreme nothingness, that extreme nothingness expressed in the sentence: ‘I want to paint nothingness.’ Geometry is contained in the pure and simple essence of the number, which, more than form itself can, clarifies the relationship between form and the space that determines it. I want colour to lose its material nature in order to purify itself in a reality of light.
The problem of the ‘nothing’ that is everything is the culmination of a purpose that is certainly beyond our human capacity; but even if the unattainability of this goal is clear, it still seems to me important—and not in vain—to devote all our energy to contemplating this spiritual vision. It is precisely in the aspiration to attain a goal greater than himself that man gives meaning and life to his hope, that principle of hope by virtue of which he seeks to reach the summit.” (Antonio Calderara, Autobiographical Notes 1970, in: Friedrich W. Heckmanns (ed.), Antonio Calderara 1903-1978, Cologne 1981, p.139/140)
Provenance
Marlborough Galleria d'Arte, Rome (label verso)
Galleria la Polana, Genua (stamp verso)
Private collection, South Germany
Ketterer, Munich, 8.12.2012, lot 266 (label verso)
Private collection, South Germany
Exhibitions
Freiburg 1988 (Galerie Regio), Antonio Calderara, Werke von 1928-1978, Eine Gedächtnisausstellung zum 85. Geburtstag (label verso)
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
Antonio Calderara
Spazio, colore, luce
1971/1973
6-part work: each oil on wood. Each 54 x 27 cm. Framed together under glass 72 x 195 cm. One panel monogrammed, dated and inscribed 'A.C.12-71.73' verso on wood. - Minor traces of age.
“My painting is logical, guided by a central theme, namely: light. My painting has its origin in my essential need for light; a light that—not yet aware of its significance—is already a tentative expression in my earliest paintings, a light that becomes clearer to me and in itself with each passing moment, until it becomes the sole, conscious, and responsible driving force of my painting. As a thought matures, germinating slowly like a seed—painting has opened itself to the problems of synthesis, simplification, emptiness, and monochromaticism, in order to arrive at that extreme nothingness, that extreme nothingness expressed in the sentence: ‘I want to paint nothingness.’ Geometry is contained in the pure and simple essence of the number, which, more than form itself can, clarifies the relationship between form and the space that determines it. I want colour to lose its material nature in order to purify itself in a reality of light.
The problem of the ‘nothing’ that is everything is the culmination of a purpose that is certainly beyond our human capacity; but even if the unattainability of this goal is clear, it still seems to me important—and not in vain—to devote all our energy to contemplating this spiritual vision. It is precisely in the aspiration to attain a goal greater than himself that man gives meaning and life to his hope, that principle of hope by virtue of which he seeks to reach the summit.” (Antonio Calderara, Autobiographical Notes 1970, in: Friedrich W. Heckmanns (ed.), Antonio Calderara 1903-1978, Cologne 1981, p.139/140)
Provenance
Marlborough Galleria d'Arte, Rome (label verso)
Galleria la Polana, Genua (stamp verso)
Private collection, South Germany
Ketterer, Munich, 8.12.2012, lot 266 (label verso)
Private collection, South Germany
Exhibitions
Freiburg 1988 (Galerie Regio), Antonio Calderara, Werke von 1928-1978, Eine Gedächtnisausstellung zum 85. Geburtstag (label verso)
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
