ERA Gallery presents an important nucleus of Incisi by Mario Surbone (Treville Monferrato, 1932) from the decade of 1968-1978, next to a selection of abstract works by Antonio Calderara (Abbiategrasso, 1903 – Vacciago, 1978), whom the Piedmontese artist considered as an indispensable reference for his research.
An Inciso of 1972 entitled Homage to Calderara and the exhibition title Due Spazi – Simili e Diversi (Two Spaces – Similar and Different) based on a 1978 work by Surbone, alludes to the profound affinity of Surbone and Calderara’s work, even in the absolute autonomy of the outcomes.
Surbone's artistic research began during his years as the student of Felice Casorati at the Academy of Albertina, from an attempt to distill, with rigor, but without schematism, nor simplifications, the scans and recurring rhythms that govern the geometric and harmonious structure through which nature offers itself to our gaze.
The Incisi series has a profoundly experimental character. In them, Surbone limits himself to engraving the cardboard monochrome supports, specially prepared with acrylic: the tension of the material itself determines the three-dimensional structure of the work, which dialogues with the light. His interventions derive not so much from the vitalistic gesture of the cut of Fontana, but rather from the articulation of Castellani's modular surfaces and, in fact, from Calderara's research on the golden proportion and on the vibration of color-light.
As Paolo Fossati wrote in 1969: "Surbone cuts and separates a pre-established drawing on the cardboard and verifies its spatial behavior, tensions, and displacements on the plane (...). It follows a geometry that is not a static outline, nor a pre-established symbol that assumes and arranges the interested variety once and for all, but a mobile process, a continuous development whose arrangement is ambiguous, unstable, and ready to resume motion”.
On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalog will be published.
We thank the Antonio and Carmela Calderara Foundation for the precious collaboration and the loan of two works by the master Calderara.
