Biel Amer

Fermento cromatico

The history of contemporary art in Italy, which has spread to the rest of Europe, has two peaks of international resonance. The first took place at the beginning of the 20th century, with the outbreak of the "Cubist" revolution and with it Futurism, with the beginning of Marinetti's manifesto published in Paris. An ephemeral movement, engulfed by the power of abstraction and surrealism, although an example of the ideological and social changes it implied, shaped during the first half of the century. Curiously, it was two Italian critics and theorists who created denominations to frame the new forms of artistic expression that arose at the beginning of the 1960s. Germano Celant grouped around his definition "Arte Povera" an entire generation of artists, Italian or otherwise, whose break with current art manifested itself in the use of unusual, non-pictorial materials. Opening of a paradigm shift of great impact whose echoes still remain. The next movement was called "Transvanguardia" by Bonito Oliva.

It was at the end of the 70s and it meant a return to painting, to the use of classical pictorial materials and languages. However, this was not a uniform movement, but rather the trend of a marked group of artists who, individually, broke with the "Poor" strategy whose mastery in the contemporary art circuit was absolute. The painting and sculpture of Vinicio Momoli fits into this expressive way of understanding art. It would not be right to simplify Momoli's work solely from the pictorial perspective, in the sense of recovery previously expressed. In fact, his work recovers painting as a basic element and as a catalyst for developing his creativity. Although his art is nourished not only by painting, for example, the incorporation of industrial materials such as methacrylate, wood or rubber, is an interesting symbiosis between the two trends. On the one hand, the painting brings him closer to the "Transvanguardia" and on the other, the industrial materials to a "Povera" air, the result of which brings us closer to a solid, personal and well-defined artistic language. If anyone believes that these pieces with such an evident color are a betrayal of the rigor of "Povera", they are completely wrong, because Momoli has managed to adapt his artistic influence to a new discourse, rather, to evolve on the premises of the " Poor art".

From his already long career, Vinicio Momoli's artistic concept has remained faithful to his descendants, moving towards the field of higher-risk plastic, from the flat surface of the painting, with its variations in materials and forms, to his more recent works with a sculptural vocation, subject to objectivity without forgetting its three-dimensionality, like physical icons beyond the plane and its rigidity. Sometimes it seems that the artist performs his work as a "dripping", pouring ribbons of multiple colors and materials, allowing them to regulate the internal rhythm of each work, drawing spaces on the painting, superimposed like a collage or as articulations, textures dynamics whose visual purpose is evident and reaffirms the truthfulness of "Povera", as a plastic, even generational, commitment of the artist. For this reason, the use of colour, mixed and compact, creates masses of pigment, like volcanic emulsions, from which appear, as evidence, small encrustations of colour, intense and brilliant, of a revealing incandescence, of a plastic tension which the artist leads to laceration, a product of the amalgam of stretched plastic. Some with erogenous sensuality invite a disturbing and, why not, lascivious look. Creases and wrinkles cause those looks. Furthermore, using a precise gamma furthers that impression, strong and dense tones such as red, black or blue, even white. The basic, colorless material is dressed in these works with this chromatic spectrum to invite the viewer to launch their imagination, even, with the artist's permission, they could dare to touch it, running their fingers through those voluptuous streaks and cavities . Let's not forget that this is a prerogative of art, to encourage our imagination.

A work without concessions, Vinicio Momoli's painting proposes a rereading of chromaticisms and pictorial space. In some pieces, the painting seems suspended on one part of the painting and in others, the brushstroke, or rather, the mixture, is just a suggestive drop of color emulsified on the support to establish a simple dialogue with a clear minimalist connotation, not to subscription to this trend, but rather for its simplicity and elegance Mario Brunello (established cellist) confirms how "painting lives in silence and manages to describe it". From there arises, without screeching, the pictorial work of Vinicio Momoli. The absence of sound is equivalent to silence as static is to colour.

The innovative three-dimensional pieces with a sculptural vocation allow a 360o look, configuring a spatial contemplation in which the spectator can reveal, if he involves his examination of the work, different visions of the same piece and control how the art, in this case of Vinicio Momoli, it is not only a plastic explosion, but also a dynamic one. Certainly, for years the artist has been creating large-scale pieces for outdoors, his monumental vocation contrasts with the subtle dimension of his paintings and objects, capable of preserving the moment of his creation, inert, absent from any discursive claim and, in any case , capable of transmitting the greatness of art contained in its singularity. Yes, we know that the artist as a man translates-transports his plastic ideal into other dimensions, as if these allowed him to access immortality, altering the concept of space. A fact that can be produced by the grandeur of external space or by the more intimate internal space. Contemplating his work without the noise of his time, of our time, is an exercise that requires no artistic knowledge, not even theoretical, with Groys' permission. Only one should be placed in front of the work and let oneself be possessed by its shapes and colors. Entering its cavities, observing the folds, moving through the edges of each fragment of his collages. The adventure is infinite because we can discuss visually and in thought, the truth of our senses, especially in those times of lies and falsity, the so-called "fake news", applied by impostors.