Paolo Masi, “Cartoni/Packing Cartons”

Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting is glad to present the exhibition dedicated to Italian master related to Pittura Analitica, Paolo Masi. The show, which goes by the title of “Cartoni/Packing Cartons“, is composed of about 60 works realized in cardboard between the 70s and 2000s.

The solo show the gallery dedicates to Italian master related to Pittura Analitica, Paolo Masi (Florence, 1933), focuses on the important research on packing cartons, which has been for many years the core of Masi’s painting practice. According to Denis Isaia’s text, which you can find in the catalogue “the use of cardboard places Masi in a particular condition in the history of contemporary art. The poverty of the material connects him to the first and most noble experiences in Street Art, the peak of which is Mimmo Rotella’s work.”

Waste materials from urban life, objets trouvée, cardboards are for Masi objects full of life; he is interested in revealing their inside nature and outside materiality: painting is seen as an intellectual act, if accompanied by the instruments allowing him to scratch, to skin the surface, is aimed at revealing the living matter of cardboard. “The winding road taken by Masi ends on the surface, once again interpreted as a dimension difficult to investigate with the available tools. As a renaissance painter uses perspective to overcome bi-dimensionality, Masi enters matter to enrich the volume of his work and therefore deceives the gaze of the onlookers and makes them lose their bearings”, Isaia continues. “The cardboard between painting and sculpture is in other words, that is in what seems to be Masi’s favourite environment. To sum up, the Plexiglas shell is an integral feature of the work and its visual neutrality is betrayed by light. Hit by rays, it reflects the light on the wall, expanding naturally the space of the work.” Isaia concludes.

As the other members of the Pittura Analitica movement, Masi’s attitude as a painter turns to the prime components of painting practice, such as stroke, light and colour reduced to the lowest common multiple of elements of minimal lexis, primary vocabulary of the act of painting. From this alphabet, Masi creates a space which, by filling up with stratified and overlapping elements, triggers the constant reflection on the infinite possibility of artistic action which, in a combinatorial game never pleased with itself, questions the space of perception.

The catalogue “Paolo Masi” curated by Glenda Cinquegrana with a text by Denis Isaia issued by Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting editions will be published at the end of the show.