Old presses

White On White
Artist finds the color of light best reflects the universe

11 March 1990

Angelo Savelli disagrees with artists who say that it is necessary to add colors to works of art to make a meaningful statement. Savelli is an artist who works only in white.

A mayor survey of 60 Savelli's white-to-white works opens Tuesday at the Allentown Art Museum.

Savelli's New York studio overlooks the cobblestone streets of the South Street Seaport.

From his window, you can see tourists and delivery trucks crowding the narrow streets. Seagulls are flying overhead. In the background are the masts of the tall ships in the harbor. Savelli - who is called Savelli even by his friends - hardly notices. He is painting a canvas white.

The scene in his studio is one of inherent contradiction. Savelli the artist has reduced his work to the most basic artistic vocabulary. Savelli the man works in a studio hat is a jumble of works in progress. Tools and brushes are everywhere. Shelves of books line two walls. White canvases  and white plexiglass constructions hang on another. Black and white photographs of his room installation decorate spaces in between. A piece of white canvas is stretched and stapled to his work table, which extends the length of the studio.

Although artistically his color preference is white, Savelli has a personal preference for the color red. A red futon, his bed and only piece of furniture, is rolled up on the floor. Savelli, who is wearing a bright red shirt, red socks and black pants, puts aside his work. The canvas becomes a place mat, the work table, a dining room table. The artist becomes host. Over espresso and homemade cake, the talk turns to art.

Savelli's conversation is a fast progression of ideas. There is a magical quality about his voice has he sums up the history of art from the Renaissance to the impressionists - in 15 minutes. As he talks about the artists who have influenced his work and the evolution of his work, he radiates a creative vitality and energy.

"It's difficult to categorize Savelli's work", says Sarah Anne McNear, associate curator of the Allentown Art Museum.

 "People want to call him a minimalist, but spiritually his work is closer to the works of the abstract expressionists. I think the fact that he discovered abstract expressionism late in his artistic life and the fact that he is Italian have given his work a distinct personal style."

Savelli bristles when he is called a minimalist.

"Minimalists have no spiritual nature. They have no interest in reproducing anything from nature. I am involved with a larger picture of the universe. To me white is not a color but an element of expression. It is never the same. It fascinates me with how many variations I can create."

"I call myself a non-objective artist. Even when I use ropes in my works, I am using a realistic element and transforming it to a form that exists on its own. The rope's curves and inner rhythm become a unifying element in my works. The rope unifies the two surfaces."

"Unity is the most important part of my work. Separation is never good. In art or in life, separation and disunity, like a divorce, is never a happy event."

Savelli, who was born in Italy in 1911, received his early training in fresco painting. As a young man he worked with his uncle, who sculpted religious figures to be displayed in churches. Savelli says his artistic vision was shaped in 1946 when he visited a church in Florence. The impression from that visit is still vivid.

"I was overcome by the simplicity of the interior of the church. It was a grayish color almost white, with slight touches of gold. The next year I went to Paris to study light, but by 1956, I started to paint white without knowing what I was doing. Years later, I remembered the simplicity of that church in Florence."

A gallery of white canvases? Is this an artistic case of the Emperor's clothes?

Savelli's works are deceptive in appearance with their outward simplicity of design.  Canvases are painted white and stretched and stapled to the walls, blending the art into the walls of the gallery, denying the existing separation of space.

Three-dimensional white constructions are mounted on white plexiglass and seem to float on the walls. Simple monochromatic canvases are slashed in half by a coil of rope, adding textural variations and suggestions of movement.

Other canvases appear to be smooth surfaces. On second glance, thin ropes add a subtle touch to an otherwise linear surface. In other works, Savelli layers the paint in a heavy impasto, or adds sand and gravel to create greater textural variations.

Savelli will create a special room installation for the Allentown exhibit. According to McNear, working with the artist is a work in progress.

"Working with him is alternately fascinating and frustrating. He is so imaginative and creative and full of ideas. He is always coming up with different ways of doing things", she says, throwing her hands up in mock despair.

Savelli calls these installations "non-classical churches".

"To me religion is finding an inner peace. A white room by itself is a psychological reunion within oneself. It is a contemporary idea of space where you can find ideas. Ideas come to a person unexpectedly. You can only catch them if you are ready; otherwise, they will flow away and you will lose them."

"I like the temporary aspect of an installation. I do it for the spiritual sense and not for the material success. No one can buy it. It disappears and only the impression it makes remains."

Savelli who taught on a university level for many years, will visit the Lehigh University campus next week and meet with students. He and his wife made their home in Springtown, Bucks County, in the 1960s when he was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.

"Although physically Savelli is a little man, he has such power. It's very daring to work only in white", comments Lucy Gans, chairman of Lehigh University's art department. "This will be an incredible opportunity for the students to meet someone who has been a working artist all his life. I hope that they will find his sincerity and his honesty contagious."

"Angelo Savelli" continues through May 6 at the Allentown Art Museum, 5^th and Court streets, Allentown. Also at the museum, an invitation only dinner-dance will be held Saturday night and a champagne reception at 2 p.m. Sunday. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Savelli will discuss the relationship between art and poetry with his long-time friend and collaborator, poet Luigi Ballerini. The talk is free and open to the public. For information, call 432-4333.

Myra Yellin Goldfarb is a free-lance writer for The Morning Call.
BY MYRA YELLIN GOLDFARB

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