“Morandi's lesson, like that of Cézanne and that of all true artists, is easy to state. The problem, and to some extent the elaboration, are expressed in simple terms. But the resolution of the unknown is expressed in spiritual terms, mysterious to all.”
—Fausto Melotti
Untitled is a rare sculpture that marks Fausto Melotti’s return to an abstract conception of sculpture post World War II.
For Melotti who was a sculptor, painter, poet, but also a musician, mathematician and aphorist, art is distant from life and the result of an inner journey. He proposes a sculptural aesthetic where, according to art historian Manuela Kahn-Rossi, the extreme structural intangibility and the inexpressibility of the conceptual essence defy classification. They are neither abstract nor figurative, but speak in favour of an artistic path which is the result of a personal inner story.
Untitled distantly recalls Melotti’s pre-war artistic research towards the abstractionism he matured over time, having been surrounded by the lively Milanese artistic environment of the 1930s, imprinted by the avant-garde vision of the Galleria del Milione. Founded by the Ghiringhelli brothers and Edoardo Persico in 1930, the gallery played a substantial role in the diffusion of abstract art in Italy. They exhibited renowned international artists including Kandinsky, Léger, Arp and Albers, as well as the Italians Veronesi, Fontana, Reggiani amongst others. Melotti’s works of that period were characterised by incisive geometric abstraction, a research strand which he abandoned during the war years and returned to from a different angle only at the end of the 1950s, coinciding with the date of Untitled.
The present sculpture links and transforms Melotti’s pre-war formal geometric language, explored primarily through scientific thought and his passion for music, into his brilliant imaginary world he later brought to life through sculptural aphorisms. Made of malleable, fused brass wire and freely hanging chains with attached glazed ceramic beads, the sculpture loosely recalls a tree yet distinguishes itself by revealing binary values of ordered structure, inherent irregularities and playfulness. Untitled is almost two dimensional, yet fully occupies space. Oscillating between abstraction and figurative art, it also rejects formal rigour in favour of a dreamlike narrative and favours lightness over volume, suggesting immateriality and opening a suggestive mental and spiritual realm.
By Dr. Lisa Hockemeyer, Art and Design Historian and Associate Professor of Design, Politecnico di Milano