THE HEART OF THE WORK OF ART IN ABSTRACT SPACE

A few days ago, Toti Scialoja, the 83-year-old Italian master of the

abstract/non-figurative art said in an interview: "There is a stylism which

imposes the dimensionsyou believe in and those you need in order to

express yourself, but they do not always correspond to commercial
demands. Many artists say: I do not paint to sell, I am not an artisan pro-

ducing shoes. But the problem still remains. People want small paintings

to hang over their sofas. But this does not coincide with the expressive

needs of the painter. A very large dimension is needed for abstract

gesture-painting because the gesture used in this type of painting does
not only come from the wrist but from the man's entire body, so it requi-

res space which allows movement. If a man's body has to express itself,

the paintings cannot have the size of a small still nature painting..."And

he continues further on, to again stress the idea of painting beyond the

object, beyond the very concept of space:"....Painting itself no longer

exists but an aesthetic symbol proposed as a work of art exists in its

place instead. Young people are influenced by this duchampian idea.

There are painters, but they are mostly figurative ones. I, instead, believe

that the idea of expressive space can be nothing else but an abstract

one."

Concerning Vittorio Amadio and his art, I find that Scialoja's statement is

a precise definition of the style of painting of this Picenian artist who, in

the past fifteen years, has progressively been cleansed of the bric-à-brac

of neorealistic and false-symbolic art. Through the absolute freedom of

the sign and the applying and opposing counterposition of the colours,

the artist has chased a direct way of expression, without any redundant
meditation. His philosophy is not solipsistic-like, exclusive, hortus conclu-

sus, but open to the invasion of other people's thoughts when they are
able to identify themselves with the springs of the painting, with the ratio-

nal soul of the artist and also with that amount of uncorrelated which

every work of art keeps stored inside of it as if it were a mysterious point

of no return. In other words, we can simply say that this appears to be
similar to the search of the Holy Graal or something like that, but, in rea-
lity, it is only what remains unexpressed in the work of the artist. Of cour-

se, each one of us, whether we are impartial or emotioned observers of

these paintings, cannot help but note the method of painting which the

artist himself only used in part since, as said before, his style is gesture-

painting. But also a gesture has a sequential characteristic which can be

rediscovered with good approximation. Its identikit can turn out to be

more or less realistic, no matter who draws it up. But this is not the best

way to penetrate the obscure recesses of the work of art. Not even

Amadio himself, if he wanted to, could furnish the necessary means to

overcome the barriers that block our way to the "heart" of the painting.

This is basicly for a simple reason: the "heart" of the painting does not

exist. What does exist is the heart of the artist. At the most, we can hear

the heart-beats while looking at the painting, but this rarely happens

because the observer is not always sensitive enough to sintonize with the

artist's drives. But a real artist who, by principle, avoids enveloping his
paintings not to seduce the eye of the observer, calls for a particular "ein-

fuhlung" toward his creative process. Amadio belongs to this rare group

of artists.

CARLOMELLONI