Old presses

The art of white
Author: Roberto Cascone

1995

White is the colour of colours, the one which contains the full spectrum of rays of light. In the work of Angelo Savelli, white is an absolute necessity, maybe even an expression of the absolute itself. Just as solar light is "white", and light and spirit are to some degree identifiable, so Savelli, who died recently, depicts in his all-white works the spiritual essence of being in an almost ascetic dimension of reality.

His vision is one which rarefies and "purifies" things. It detaches them from themselves, simultaneously perpetuating them as symbols and immortalising their meaning. His spiral ropes appear to be reminding us how, in the eternity of light, even the simplest objects have an internal, morphic complexity, at once attractive and impenetrable, as parts of an infine future, segments of space transformed into a universal concept.

Savelli, born in Pizzo Calabro in 1911, enjoyed little success in Italy. After working in Rome and Paris, he later moved to New York, and it was there that the began to work exclusively with white. The Museo Pecci in Prato recently held an exhibition of over 100 of Savelli's paintings, sculptures and graphic works.

Author: Roberto Cascone

Show attachment