Antonio Saporito’s Spatialism
Ufo from space lead, aluminum and acrylic on masonite 40x50 2015
It is an art type in an ascending way, using cold and hard
materials like steel, and others like copper, aluminum, brass and
lead, creating shapes and designs of all kinds. This is what we see
in the wise hand of Antonio Saporito, an incredible precision,
stringency and neatness in his works, creating that originality
recognized to this master.
Saporito's research of geometric space is projected more and more
in the search of beyond, what we have in front of us.
With right among the spatialists, Antonio Saporito referred to
great artists like Atanasio Soldati, one of the head figures of the
Italian Abstractionism, Matt Moore, Max Bill and others who
influenced his youth research.
But it is particularly the direct relationship with the historical
master of Spatialism Lucio Fontana, that creates the awareness of
spatial art in Antonio Saporito, in the early 60s.
Antonio Saporito attained the main teachings and experiences from
the progenitor master of the spatialist movement thanks to these
occasions, to the good luck of meeting Lucio Fontana and having
several encounters in his studio, both in Milan and in Albissola.
And so, after several years of figurative art, he begins to work
on metals, leaving the material and instead making support as the
protagonist and work of art at the same time, with perforations,
cuts, collages, assemblages and workings of all kinds.
Today he can
boast the recognition attributed to him by professionals and critics
in particular.
An Italian contemporary artist
Antonio Saporito, contemporary Italian artist, was born in Italy, in Rocchetta Sant'Antonio in the province of Foggia, in 1940.
Antonio Saporito, contemporary artist of today, exponent of modern contemporary art, famous abstract artist for geometric abstract art in metal and acrylic.
Contemporary italian abstract painters, his artistic training is influenced in the beginner by modern and contemporary figurative painters, figurative art 60 years, from famous contemporary artists that have characterized the Italian cultural and fine arts abstract of those years.
Meeting with Lucio Fontana
At that time Fontana was overtaking the traditional distinction between painting and sculpture, the leap that will take him to the unmistakable "cuts on canvas "typical of Lucio Fontana and in his studio you could see works such as" metals ", brass plates or torn steel.
Antonio Saporito, at that time, was still at the academy and meetings with Lucio Fontana and meditation on the work of these, particularly mark the development of the artistic research of Saporito. In particular, on the abstract reflections in spatialism in relation to the future. Lucio Fontana spoke of time: "You have to allow time to time".
Not yet known to market, Lucio Fontana, after this period, comes to the well-known series "End of God", large vertical oval monochrome canvases, bearing gashes.
"In the period that I met the master Lucio Fontana, he made these works, not cuts, but these punches freehand. It was what most intrigued me and I was wondering what was the meaning. While standing there, next to him , looking incredulous and thoughtful, his words explaine in part what we all know of his way to make art and its abstraction, even today, after more than 50 years, gives me emotion.
"In the period that I met the master Lucio Fontana, he made these works, not cuts, but these punches freehand. It was what most intrigued me and I was wondering what was the meaning. While standing there, next to him , looking incredulous and thoughtful, his words explaine in part what we all know of his way to make art and its abstraction, even today, after more than 50 years, gives me emotion.
In those moments which it began the turning point of my artistic life in the world of research and the personalization of my art.
After several attempts to work on cathedral glass engraved in focus and the strong waters volcanic caves, the theme of the copper coils, the number of pens and the figurative oil on canvas up to what has been the experience of what he had told me the master Lucio Fontana, explaining the spatial abstraction. All this has led me to the main topic I produce with steel , aluminum and lead. " Antonio Saporito
It is on this theme that Antonio Saporito develops his art since the 90s. His artistic research, it will develop more and more towards a "new approach" and his works will begin to be made of materials such as steel, aluminum, brass.
This time the art of Antonio Saporito marks a radical shift from figurative to abstract art.
Geometric sculpture, 1997. Green steel, Green steel Technique. 74.5x39.5 cm
Antonio Saporito, contemporary Italian artist
Abstract Drawing,
2009,
Enamel and collage on aluminum,
40 x 50 cm,
Archive n. b-n76
If his visual experimentation appears marked by a penalty which does not seem to have time for imagination, actually this artist expresses emotions and thoughts that become signs and matter.
The reference to Euclidean geometry is thus reworked into imaginative key and even playful, an abstraction very strictly and, in certain cases, accompanied by decidedly expressionist pages marked by a vibrant chromaticism, marked by an incisive sign and ironclad.
Initially close to the lesson of Ennio Calabria, Ugo Nespolo and Franco Rognoni, Saporito has been able to interpret their language reaching its own and unquestionable personality that has been highlighted by critics like Paul Levi, Gian Giorgio Massara, Vittorio Sgarbi, Angelo Mistrangelo, Guido Folco, Luciano Carini, Massimo Centini, Giulia Silato.
Devoted articles to the artist by:
Arte Mondadori, ACCA Rome, Modern and Contemporary Art Festival, Arte Saluzzo, Artists in Turin, La Stampa, New Newspaper Piacenza, Art Leader, IN Art, Italy Art, Art Courier Characters in Piacenza.
