Turi Simeti

(Italian, born 1929)

Tre ovali blu
1980

Footnotes

This work is registered in the Archivio Turi Simeti, Milan, under no. 1980-BL1701, and is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Exhibited
Macerata, Pinacoteca e Musei Comunali Amici dell'Arte, Turi Simeti: lo spazio della mente, 1980, p. 24, no. 17, illustrated in black and white (incorrectly dated)

Literature
Christian Maretti Ed., Turi Simeti: Catalogo Generale, Verona 2007, p. 91, illustrated in colour


An ocean of deep blue, Turi Simeti's Tre ovali blu of 1980 almost defies description. Sculptural, architectural, perhaps even topographical, this is a painting which pushes the boundaries of its media. Not quite typically abstract, but omitting any hint of the representational, it does not aim to capture the image of a place or object, but rather becomes the place or object itself. Bringing together colour and form in an immense yet subtle composition, Tre ovali blu is a remarkable canvas, a painting which exists beyond the limits of the artistic tradition.

Simeti's innovative use of the oval, the stunning effects of which are witnessed here in the present work, has become his distinctive artistic signature. The artist's paintings display his interest in the use of estroflessione, an Italian word with no direct equivalent in English which is often also applied to the work of Enrico Castellani and Agostino Bonalumi to describe their fascinating manipulations of monochrome painted canvases. Tre ovali blu itself offers one of the clearest definition of this estroflessione, with the three ovoid forms pushing forward, drawing the surface tight, creating crisp lines and graceful curves in the process. Although their impact is arresting, the workings of the painting are actually rather subtle; when the work is viewed from behind, three oval wooden blocks can just be seen, secreted between stretcher and canvas to create the three-dimensional facade recto. Although clearly minimalist in its intentions, this is a work of art with a singular aura and capable of inducing contemplation. Cool and classical in its form, and yet daring and unapologetic in its ebullient use of colour, Turi Simeti's Tre ovali blu exemplifies a fearless future art, predicting a world in which beauty is pared back to its perfect, pure essence.

Born in Sicily in 1929, Turi Simeti moved to Rome in the 1950s, a decade when the city was becoming one of Europe's, if not the world's, most dynamic artistic centres. After some time working in the studio of Agostino Bonalumi, Simeti began his independent artistic career in 1962. His painting developed in a direction not dissimilar to that of his Italian peers, most notably Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani and Agostino Bonalumi, all of these men casting aside the techniques of the past in their defiant challenges to the status quo. In 1965, Simeti's work was featured in an exhibition dedicated to the Zero group held in Fontana's studio, thus confirming his role in the evolution of this massively influential movement. In the 1980s and 1990s he spent time in Brazil, living and working there for a large periods of time, before settling back in Italy, where he still creates to this day. In recent years his paintings have featured in exhibitions around the world and his work is held in numerous public collections, including the Stadtische Museum Gelsenkirchen, Germany, MAM Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome.