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Lot Essay
The ferocity of the swirls of black and white in Per la Spagna N.10 ('For Spain No.10') belie the studious application of paint in Vedova's works. This is not a spontaneous painting, comprising gesture rather than thought, but a deliberate and structured painting. This is made evident by the artistic consistency between the present painting and the others from the powerful Per la Spagna series executed as a tribute to a country that has played an important role in his life. Vedova is a political artist - he had been in the Corrente movement during the early years of the Second World War, and then joined the anti-Fascist resistance. Picasso's landmark painting Guernica had a huge influence on the Venetian, and he sought a modern means of political artistic expression. As he himself stated: 'Painting today means living today, debating the problems of today' (quoted in Emilio Vedova, exh. Cat., Frankfurt, 1989, no pagination).
Guernica's legacy continued in Vedova's works, as did his political views. Franco's dictatorship became a feature in some of Vedova's collages and the general historical tragedy of Spain's Civil War marked him greatly. He came to know Spain well in the early 1960s, spending a great deal of time there and frequently exhibiting. Indeed, his 1960 exhibition in Madrid and Barcelona featured in its catalogue texts by several key Spanish artists and writers, not least his fellow proponent of Informel, Antoni Tàpies who claimed that it prompted one of the most formative moments in the development of Barcelona's modern art.
This period in Vedova's career marked his return to a strong style - he had found a new means of artistic expression. For many years previously, he had allowed a suffocating formality to dominate his works, but now used the same appreciation of colour he had developed in those formal paintings to guide him in these more vivid works. Vedova's appreciation of plays of light has been evident from the very beginning of his career, when his fellow Venetian Tintoretto was a dominating influence. He painted stylised versions of several of Tintoretto's works, exploring their sense of composition and chiaroscuro. The extremes of darkness and light in Per la Spagna N.10 reflect his continued interest in - and mastery of - Venetian chiaroscuro. In this powerful work, the black and white are punctuated by hints of red, hinting both at spilt blood and increasing the impressive play on light and space that Vedova has carefully engineered. Within the swirls of colour, Vedova conceals words, letters and signs, making his paintings a vortex of discourse.
Guernica's legacy continued in Vedova's works, as did his political views. Franco's dictatorship became a feature in some of Vedova's collages and the general historical tragedy of Spain's Civil War marked him greatly. He came to know Spain well in the early 1960s, spending a great deal of time there and frequently exhibiting. Indeed, his 1960 exhibition in Madrid and Barcelona featured in its catalogue texts by several key Spanish artists and writers, not least his fellow proponent of Informel, Antoni Tàpies who claimed that it prompted one of the most formative moments in the development of Barcelona's modern art.
This period in Vedova's career marked his return to a strong style - he had found a new means of artistic expression. For many years previously, he had allowed a suffocating formality to dominate his works, but now used the same appreciation of colour he had developed in those formal paintings to guide him in these more vivid works. Vedova's appreciation of plays of light has been evident from the very beginning of his career, when his fellow Venetian Tintoretto was a dominating influence. He painted stylised versions of several of Tintoretto's works, exploring their sense of composition and chiaroscuro. The extremes of darkness and light in Per la Spagna N.10 reflect his continued interest in - and mastery of - Venetian chiaroscuro. In this powerful work, the black and white are punctuated by hints of red, hinting both at spilt blood and increasing the impressive play on light and space that Vedova has carefully engineered. Within the swirls of colour, Vedova conceals words, letters and signs, making his paintings a vortex of discourse.