Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting is proud to present
Sarenco, The Iconoclast of Visual Poetry
From April 7th to 17th, 2025.
On our Artsy page
Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting is pleased to present The Iconoclast of Visual Poetry, an exclusive online exhibition Sarenco available at our Artsy page.
“[…] This is the strand followed by Sarenco: on the one side the wording that bewilders because of the manifest tautology it holds and on the other side the use of the baroque paradox, that is the repetition of meaning which focuses on the accumulation of offered data making them lose their content through a decontextu- alizing reiteration.”
(cit. Giosuè Allegrini, Sarenco, with texts by Giosuè Allegrini and Oriano Mabellini, Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting publ., Milan, 2023., pag. 8 of 68, ITA/ENG.)
Isaia Mabellini, known as Sarenco, embodied one of the most radical and irreverent voices in 20th-century visual poetry. Within the kaleidoscope of visual poetry, the artist emerges as an enigma, a prophet transforming words into revelation. Through his alter ego, he breaks down barriers between the visible and the ineffable, engaging in an act of poetic deconstruction. His art echoes a suspended truth: every sign, every sentence becomes a flash of awareness that pierces the darkness of everyday reality. Sarenco’s almost mystical presence remains an enduring symbol of a silent revolution, in which each word becomes illumination and each image an act of redemption.
Sarenco represents the paradox of modernity: within the chaos of his compositions lies a poetic order, inviting viewers to surrender to the force of truth and be overwhelmed by its intensity. Sarenco‘s almost mystical presence remains an enduring symbol of a silent revolution, in which each word becomes illumination and each image an act of redemption.
Within the kaleidoscope of visual poetry, the artist emerges as an enigma, a prophet who transforms words into revelation. Examples such as his 1964 works Le Rouge et Le Noir and In Principio erano le Figure Geometriche clearly illustrate his meditation on the essence of communication, establishing a foundation for a universal visual language, as does the work Grandestrage (1964). Each form for Sarenco investigates the artistic medium itself, such as Abbasso i Morti (1969), and Poesia, Pittura, Scultura, Eccetera. (1966), in which he emphasizes the intrinsic linguistic nature of the artistic mediums.
The series New International Abstraction, executed between 1972 and 2002, represents a radical reflection on the flag as embodiment of power. Sarenco deconstructs patriotic imagery, emphasizing the formal nature of the flag’s abstract symbol, and highlighting the illusory nature of political and identity-related concepts associated with it.
