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=== The pictorial structure of Filoplastica ===
=== The pictorial structure of Filoplastica ===
The new conception of Filoplastica entails a different organization of the pictorial space. The previous significance of Tonaltimbrica, sharp and penetrating, took on the appearance of a filament, thin and sinuous, which immerses itself in the basic chromatic layer of the painting <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Balestreri |first=Idamaria |date=January 1972 |title=Marco Almaviva |journal=Equilibrio |issue=1 |pages=32}}</ref>. Filoplastica represents a stylistic inversion of the Tonaltimbrica components: the timbral mark of pure colour becomes a chromatic line characterised by changes in tone that, consequently, also involve the background, which, in its initial application, unlike Tonaltimbrica, stands out for its uniformity. The interpenetration between the filament and the colour base of the painting bestows upon the representation the characteristics of a plastic, impalpable, and luminous form, conceived by Almaviva as the expression of that primordial matter that he aims to investigate, despite its inherent incomprehensibility <ref>{{Cite book |last=Almaviva |first=Marco |title=La struttura lieve. Genesi e morfologia della Filoplastica |publisher=Periekon |year=2012 |location=Buggiano}}</ref>
The new conception of Filoplastica entails a different organization of the pictorial space. The previous significance of Tonaltimbrica, sharp and penetrating, took on the appearance of a filament, thin and sinuous, which immerses itself in the basic chromatic layer of the painting <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Balestreri |first=Idamaria |date=January 1972 |title=Marco Almaviva |journal=Equilibrio |issue=1 |pages=32}}</ref>. Filoplastica represents a stylistic inversion of the Tonaltimbrica components: the timbral mark of pure colour becomes a chromatic line characterised by changes in tone that, consequently, also involve the background, which, in its initial application, unlike Tonaltimbrica, stands out for its uniformity. The interpenetration between the filament and the colour base of the painting bestows upon the representation the characteristics of a plastic, impalpable, and luminous form, conceived by Almaviva as the expression of that primordial matter that he aims to investigate, despite its inherent incomprehensibility <ref>{{Cite book |last=Almaviva |first=Marco |title=La struttura lieve. Genesi e morfologia della Filoplastica |publisher=Periekon |year=2012 |location=Buggiano}}</ref>


2M. Almaviva, ''La Struttura lieve. Genesi e morfologia della Filoplastica'', Periekon, Buggiano 2012., p. 9.
:
:

'''1969–1970'''
:He opens Galleria Amaltea in Genoa, a documentation centre for his work.<ref>''Genova in mostra. Esposizioni pubbliche e private dal dopoguerra ad oggi. Anni Sessanta'', ed. F. Sborgi, AdAc. Archivio d'Arte Contemporanea, Università degli Studi di Genova, De Ferrari&Devega, p. 236.</ref> There emerges a more pronounced need for autonomy also by means of a dialectic exchange with avant-gardism that were appearing in the city.

'''1971–1979'''
:In 1971 [[Filoplastica]] was born,<ref>See E. Martinelli, "Fantasia e simbolo in Marco Almaviva", ''L'Adige'', September 15, 1971.</ref> a structure whose form was the channeling off, through a sinuous gossamer-thin filament which symbiotically enlivens the tonal element of the background, of the code that had been honed in Tonaltimbrica in an atmosphere of suspension and tenuousness of the mark of the painting.<ref>A. Schettini, "Marco Almaviva all' 'Isolotto'", ''Corriere di Napoli'', March 26, 1974.</ref> The phyloplastic outcome means that the block caused by fruitless witnessing and denunciation, seen in the poetics of Tonaltimbrica is partly overcome prefiguring globalism - which is possible since Filoplastica itself has a secular outlook of openness to knowledge - which absorbs the very dimension of the biological and leads it to being the manifestation if a crystalline substance, indefinitely plastic and tenuous. The theoretical definition of Filoplastica is continued in Genoa, fully independently from the dominating artistic currents and the critique which was then considered militant, by a series of 50 one-man shows up to now (Almaviva does not take part in collectives or award-winning events).


'''1979–2007'''
'''1979–2007'''

Revision as of 14:53, 6 August 2023

Marco Almaviva (born January 23, 1934) is an Italian painter.

Early life and training

Almaviva was born in Novi Ligure (Province of Alessandria, Italy). His father, the sculptor Armando Vassallo, Francesco Messina's first teacher and close friend, was one of the most representative of the small circle of artists who have distinguished themselves for their research potential and originality, representing alternative lines of research with respect to the dominant models in the Italian artistic culture of the Thirties. In contrast to the directives of fascism, Vassallo rejected the dominant classicism in the field of sculpture.[1]He was the protagonist of a particular artistic journey: from his early experiences in liberty and art déco , through a significant intervention of stylistic reduction, in the mid-twenties he reached original solutions, characterized by the convergence of floral linearism with the volumetric essentiality attributable to the instances of Novecento Italiano.[2][3]This research perspective led Vassallo to join the avant-garde group "Sintesi", inspired by the principles of Second Futurism.[4] By the time Vassallo moved from Genoa to Novi Ligure, he had taken part in two Venice Biennals (1928 and 1930), and the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris; he had established relationships and worked with major exponents of art and culture of his time, from Adolfo Wildt to Arturo Martini, from Edgar Wood to Rino Valdameri, Giovanni Pastrone and Gabriele D'Annunzio,-drawing one of the posters of the blockbuster Cabiria[5]. Anyway, Vassallo had already begun to express dissent against the fascist regime as far as art was concerned, openly criticizing its leaders, with his consequent exclusion from the public exhibition circuit. One of Vassallo's last presences in an official exhibition was in September 1933, together with Arturo Martini, with whom he shared the urgent need to renew Italian sculpture and art.[6]

The dramatic events in his father's life led Marco Almaviva to have a technical-scientific education, far from the world of art [7]. His artistic interests began to take shape in the late 1950s when he started frequenting the Brera environment in Milan, also to gain a deeper understanding of his father's artistic history and work. This initial need became one of the primary motivations for an unvarnished analysis of the art world, founded on a critical approach towards artistic officialdom, a characteristic that would shape the entire career of Marco Almaviva [8]. In this perspective, he came into contact with Francesco Messina, spending time in his studio and dealing in particular with the interest that, at that time, the Sicilian sculptor had shown for new materials. In the early 1960s, in Milan, Almaviva is in contact with Peppino Ghiringhelli of the “Il Milione” gallery. He knows Carlo Carrà, Dino Buzzati and the avant-garde circles [9]. In the mid-1960s, he meets Giorgio Kaisserlian, a fundamental reference for Lucio Fontana’s work.

Kaisserlian's paradox: an infeasible scenario

The meeting with Kaisserlian (1965) had a crucial impact on Almaviva's artistic choices. The Milanese critic introduced Almaviva to the revolutionary consequences of Fontana's Spatialism. Fontana had brought about a radical transformation with the act of tearing the canvas, particularly in works like "Expectations," which eliminated the traditional two-dimensional foundation of painting [10] [11] As Kaisserlian clarified, this rupture in the support structure meant that there was no longer another surface or "reserve" on which to continue painting. To persist as a painter would have implied working without the canvas, an unfeasible and paradoxical solution -attempting to create an "oil on canvas" without the flat support on which to apply the paint. The concept of an "oil without having the plane/canvas" explicitly reveals the revolutionary scope of Fontana's gesture, as it effectively nullifies the possibility of providing a relevant response to Fontana's breakthrough within the confines of traditional painting [12]. In this regard, Kaisserlian made a significant observation that, despite Fontana's act of eliminating traditional painting, the essence of Spatialism was born from within the realm of painting itself. To move beyond painting, one needed to confront and engage directly with the medium, passing through the canvas. This implied that one had to be a painter to effectively express oneself in this context. Considering this perspective, Almaviva chose to stay within the realm of painting, also because he found that a purely formal approach to art did not satisfy him [9].

The beginnings and the Tonaltimbrica

Since its beginnings, Almaviva embraced a vision of art and life that couldn't ignore a fundamental observation, which consists of acknowledging the violence that characterizes the entire natural hierarchy. It is the incessant struggle for survival, the recurring element that pervades, first and foremost, the biological sphere in which human reality is inevitably placed. This was the underlying assumption to which Almaviva referred in all his evaluations concerning everything he had acquired, not only in relation to art but, more generally, in connection to every idea on which to base any possible conception of reality. Consequently, there was a rejection of any conception of existence that aimed to justify a world marked by oppression and suffering. Painting, therefore, became Almaviva's initial response to the drama present in nature to this state of affairs. It became a way to “reorganize one's morality” in terms of bearing witness to the drama present in nature[13] (dominated by Zöe [8]) against all possible mystifications of reality. Based on these premises, he aimed to create a pictorial structure capable of fully visualizing a world in which everything was engulfed by the biological sphere, unable to break free from the primal instincts that dominate in nature. For this purpose, in 1967, he developed Tonaltimbrica, a pictorial style whose formal structure is conceived in strict correspondence with the irrepressible biological antagonism that, in Almaviva's conception, characterizes existence [13]. In the same year, he made his debut in Milan, at the Rotonda della Besana, in an exhibition organized by the Centro Verritré, showcasing Palpito Primordiale (Primordial Beat) considered the emblem of the new tonaltimbric sensitivity[14].

Tonaltimbric Style

The Tonaltimbrica was presented as "a two-dimensional painting in a single figurative system."[15] Stylistically, it is characterized by the extreme reduction of its two constituent elements: on one hand, the "tonal" element that outlines the masses in the background of the painting using a color base that defines spaces through variations in tone within a uniform chromatic range; on the other hand, the "timbric" sign, consisting of the relief texture of pure color that structures the tonal masses in the background of the picture[16][17] . It is through the interaction of these two distinct components (tonal+timbric) that a representation is achieved that is "rough and poignant," "able to make one feel the struggle and drama that continuously unfold at every level of life."[13]

The birth of Filoplastica

In 1969, Almaviva moved to Genoa, where he founded the Amaltea Gallery, a documentation center for his work [18]. In 1971, the aggressive and sharp code of Tonaltimbrica transformed into the soft filament of Filoplastica [19]. Almaviva's new artistic solution was an expression of a new research necessity that, while not denying the initial denunciation against the arrogance of nature, aimed at a broader vision in which to reconsider reality. The theoretical possibilities for such an operation were already implicit in Tonaltimbrica since it regarded the natural context, albeit in its undeniable evidence, as an intermediate reality within a world that needed to be further investigated. However, this operation wouldn't have involved any metaphysical escape towards a paradisiacal reality as compensation for suffering in nature. Almaviva's pictorial investigation remained internal to the matter itself. In the representation of Filoplastica, the dynamics of biological reality and the drama of life are reinterpreted as if they were epidermal manifestations, similar to germinations or efflorescences, of a primordial material substrate [20].

The pictorial structure of Filoplastica

The new conception of Filoplastica entails a different organization of the pictorial space. The previous significance of Tonaltimbrica, sharp and penetrating, took on the appearance of a filament, thin and sinuous, which immerses itself in the basic chromatic layer of the painting [21]. Filoplastica represents a stylistic inversion of the Tonaltimbrica components: the timbral mark of pure colour becomes a chromatic line characterised by changes in tone that, consequently, also involve the background, which, in its initial application, unlike Tonaltimbrica, stands out for its uniformity. The interpenetration between the filament and the colour base of the painting bestows upon the representation the characteristics of a plastic, impalpable, and luminous form, conceived by Almaviva as the expression of that primordial matter that he aims to investigate, despite its inherent incomprehensibility [22]

1979–2007

He continues his work and research in Tuscany, in his home/atelier in Buggiano noting that he is also interested in the cultural promotion of public bodies and museums both in terms of a 'deconstructional'-approach analysis of today's developments in the debate on art at international level, but also the habits of and processes towards legitimisation used by today's critique establishment.[23]

References

  1. ^ F. Sborgi, Vicende alternative all'interno degli Anni Venti, in La scultura a Genova e in Liguria III, Il Novecento, Carige, Genova, 1989, pp. 82-85.
  2. ^ Ughetto, Liliana (1995). "Consuntivo degli anni Trenta". In Chilosi, Cecilia; Ughetto, Liliana (eds.). La ceramica del Novecento in Liguria. Genova: Banca Carige. pp. 60, 152.
  3. ^ Ragazzi, Franco (2006). "'J'aime la mer d'un amour inassouvi'. Marinetti e il futurismo attraverso la Lguria". In Ragazzi, Franco (ed.). Marinetti in Liguria. Genova: De Ferrari. p. 39. ISBN 9788871728117.
  4. ^ Crispolti, Ugo (1982). La ceramica futurista da Balla a Tullio D'Albisola. Firenze: Centro Di. pp. 25, 144.
  5. ^ Della Torre, Roberto (2014). Invito al cinema. Le origini del manifesto cinematografico in Italia (1895-1930). Milano: Educatt. p. 42.
  6. ^ "La II mostra d'arte". Il Secolo XIX: 3. 30 January 1933.
  7. ^ Belotti, Lisa (1973). "Marco Almaviva". Enciclopedia aggiornata dell'arte moderna. Milano: IDAF.
  8. ^ a b Almaviva, Marco (2006). Klosmatos, Filoplastica Shapes and Structures by/Filoplastiche Formen und Strukturen von Marco Almaviva (2nd ed.). Buggiano-Alessandria: Periekon. pp. 19–21.
  9. ^ a b Strano, Carmelo (2022). "A Path towards His Own Reality". In Lemaire, Gérad-Georges; Strano, Carmelo (eds.). The Filoplastica and Its Developments. Milano-Adelaide: Fyinpaper and Innerself. pp. 21–22.
  10. ^ On the specific subject, see Baj, Enrico (1989), Ecologia dell'arte. Milano: Rizzoli. p. 45 ""Fontana si mise a far buchi e tagli sulla tela perché voleva significare che sulla tela non bisognava più dipingere. Tagliando e forando la superficie del quadro egli riaffermava che l’arte doveva pasare attraverso la tela e propagarsi nell’etere" ("Fontana began making holes and cuts on the canvas because he wanted to signify that painting should no longer be done on the canvas. By cutting and piercing the surface of the painting, he reaffirmed that art should pass through the canvas and propagate into the ether.")
  11. ^ See also: Crispolti, Enrico (2006), Fontana's Creative Path in Twentieth Century Art. Milano: Skira, p. 27; Mansoor, Jelah (2016), Marshall Plan Modernism. Italian Postwar Abstraction and the Beginnings of Autonomia. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 69-73; Celant, Germano (2002), Un folle amore. La collezione Luigi e Peppino Agrati. Milano: Skira, p. 140.
  12. ^ Almaviva, Archivio (21 May 2019). "Focus on canvas". Exibart.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ a b c Gatti, Maria Luisa (1977). "Almaviva Marco". L'arte italiana nel XX secolo. Bologna: Le Due Torri.
  14. ^ De Bono, A. (1967). Il paesaggio nell'arte contemporanea. Milano: Petrus. pp. 10–11.
  15. ^ "Marco Almaviva". L'arte italiana nel mondo (3nd ed.). Torino: SEN. 1971.
  16. ^ Scotti, Walter; Tannozzini, Franco, eds. (1971). "Almaviva Marco". Rassegna dell'arte italiana contemporanea. Roma: Associazione romana per il centro storico. p. 85.
  17. ^ Fezzi, Elda (16 May 1971). "Marco Almaviva Al Torrazzo". La Provincia.
  18. ^ Sborgi, Franco (ed.). Genova in mostra. Esposizioni pubbliche e private dal dopoguerra ad oggi. Anni Sessanta. Genova: Adac (Università di Genova) - De Ferrari. p. 236.
  19. ^ Martinelli, Ester (15 September 1971). "Fantasia e simbolo in Marco Almaviva". L'Adige.
  20. ^ Gatti, Maria Luisa (1976). Almaviva Marco. Genova: Edizioni della Galleria d'Arte Amaltea.
  21. ^ Balestreri, Idamaria (January 1972). "Marco Almaviva". Equilibrio (1): 32.
  22. ^ Almaviva, Marco (2012). La struttura lieve. Genesi e morfologia della Filoplastica. Buggiano: Periekon.
  23. ^ M. Almaviva, Filoplastica, Musei di Strada Nuova. Bookshop,Palazzo Doria Tursi, Genoa, March 15-April 15, 2007.
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