Issuu

E B O N Y

I S S U E

•

n ° 1 5

•

2 0 1 8

EBONY ISSUE - n° 15 - 2018 - € 10 www.theoney d.com

The Art of Sailing Sanlorenzo SX8

QUART ERLY - P.I. 21/07 /2018 Intern ationa l € 10, Poste Italiane S.p.a. Chf 10,50 , UK £ 7,50 Spedizione in Abbon amento Postale

- 70% - LO/MI

[ ART ON BOARD ]

WOOD AND FREEDOM The infinite creative potential offered by this material has made it the choice of many artists.

©MART, JACOPO SALVI

Used for works in all styles and schools, it is now increasingly popular on the international scene

by Micaela Zucconi

hat do Mario Ceroli, Giuseppe Penone, Fabrizio Plessi, Aron and

La Galleria de’ Foscherari in Bologna has a close relationship with the

Gehard Demetz, Yun Jung Seon, Pawel Grunert, Willy Verginer,

artist and has mounted more than one exhibition of his work, most

Bruno Walpoth, Tadashi Kawamata and David Nash have in common?

recently last June. Wood is also the choice of Giuseppe Penone (1947),

Wood. Worked, considered, transformed, reused and interpreted

an exponent of the Arte Povera school founded by critic Germano Celant

according to different canons, ideas, techniques and forms, in different

in 1967. From the beams where the artists found his original wood beams

artistic times and settings. It’s both affordable and noble, and enables

to the bronze and gold tree shown at the Mart of Rovereto in 2016 and the

great freedom of expression. One of the first to choose wood for his work

Leaves of Light installation at the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, his research is

is Mario Ceroli (born in 1938), who even in the early 1960s anticipated

based on experimentation, as shown in 2017 at the Equivalenze exhibition

avant garde trends. The shapes in untreated spruce and the theme of

at the Galleria Gagosian in Roma. In some works by Fabrizio Plessi, an

seriality and overlapping surfaces where light and shade create movement

important player on the international scene and one of the first Italian

would all become symbols in his stylistic code. This low-cost material also

artists to work with video art, wood is combined with monitors and

means less money is spent on collaborators like artisans or typographers.

electronics, as in his most recent performance held as part of the Elite

110

priv. coll. Above, Mario Ceroli, Finestra 1967, Galleria de’ Foscherari. Right, Giuseppe Penone, Equivalenze – 2 July 2016, Galleria Gagosian, Rome. Below, Bruno Walpoth, Mateo, 2011, detail

Opening, Willy Verginer, Komm lieber Mai und mache…, 2015, detail,

Days event at Cantieri Sanlorenzo. The age-old story of wood sculpture and growing interest in it in contemporary art circles inspired an exhibition at the Mart of Rovereto in 2017. here the spotlight fell on a group of artists formed in Val Gardena, the cradle of a carving school with no comparison in Europe. All are interpreters of tradition expressed through a modern aesthetic language. Willy Verginer, Bruno Walpoth, Gehard Demetz and Aron Demetz Votati are dedicated to the study of the human form. Votati is fresh from a one-man show at the MANN (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli), where his sculptures were placed in a dialogue with the museum’s classical and Egyptian exhibits. From the Dolomites to the Far East in search of other artists, like Tadashi Kawamata, Japanese but French by adoption, famous for his installations - The Shower, for example, made for the church of Santa Caterina al Formiello in Naples, comprising around four thousand fruit boxes recovered from the local market. His work has been shown across the world, from the Pompidou Centre in Paris to the Serpentine Gallery in London and the Daegu Art Museum in South Korea – and South Korea is where 111

[ ART ON BOARD ] To side, Pawel Grunert, Wave Chair, steel and wicker, 2002, limited ed. no. 1/12 examples, Galleria Paola Colombari, Milan. Below, Three Columns, 2017, wood, partly carbonised, Annely Juda Fine Art, London. Bottom, left, Yun Jung Seo, Invisible Cities, 2014, aluminium, wood, drypoint on paper, Hyunnart Studio, Rome. Bottom, right, Giuseppe Penone, Spazio di Luce,

ÂŠ THE ARTIST. COURTESY ANNELY JUDA FINE ART, LONDON

2008, MART, private coll.

Yun Jung Seo (1979) hails from, although she now divides her time between Rome and Seoul. Seo has honed her spatial and plastic approach with the sculptor Carlo Lorenzetti, developing an abstract, almost dream-like style. Pawel Grunert, born in Warsaw in 1965, walks a line between sculpture and design. In Italy he is represented by the Galleria Paola Colombari. Grunert is known around the world for his creations with branches, straw, wood and metal. His chair/sculptures, a call to nature, are also famous. Finally, David Nash, whose work is inspired by the trees, is one of the artists at the Galleria Annely Juda Fine Art in London. His recent one-person show Wood, Metal, Pigment included particularly significant works. Trees have been his special focus for fifty years, enabling him to

ÂŠMART, PHOTOGRAPHIC AND MEDIA ARCHIVE

explore their life and role as provider of wood.

112