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Lot Essay
Morrocco was drawn to the local people who both worked and rested on the beaches. But his interest was not only in the visual memory of the figures he saw but also in the composition he could make from the form of their shapes against the background of the sea.
'These subjects that I used to see in Italy, which you don't see here - the human figure related to something that's happening either in their work or whatever. I mean, they live out of doors, so that one is able to use the human figure on beaches to begin with - almost the nude figure in all kinds of attitudes in relation to the eternal sea, the strip of blue or green that's in front against the sky. The abstraction splitting the canvas into three sections and then intervening, linking it, knitting a pattern through it with figures intrigues me a lot - I mean the abstract background to the thing first of all. But then the subject also interests me. And because I'm of Italian origin and I react to the kind of lifestyle naturally, these subjects I've chosen to paint are the subjects which are near to my heart' (C. Young and V. Keller, Alberto Morrocco 1917-1998, Edinburgh, 2008, p. 99).
In Bathers, Fondachello, Morrocco has reduced the background of the painting to vibrant colour planes of blues, reds, greens and greys and then adds to this the brilliant white form of a nearby boat. The sea with its varied tones of blue and green dominates the work, framing the simplified forms of the bathers who are almost consumed, melting into the background. Through his highly charged use of colour, Morrocco imparts the intense Mediterranean heat to the viewer. It is this dramatic exploration of colour which has made Morrocco so renowned as an artist. In his words: 'If you are interested in colour, you want to get the full powerful value of it - you have got to let the form be less important ... So I started to use colour, trying to push it to the absolute limit of intensity within its range' (C. Young and V. Keller, Alberto Morrocco 1917-1998, Edinburgh, 2008, p. 69).
'These subjects that I used to see in Italy, which you don't see here - the human figure related to something that's happening either in their work or whatever. I mean, they live out of doors, so that one is able to use the human figure on beaches to begin with - almost the nude figure in all kinds of attitudes in relation to the eternal sea, the strip of blue or green that's in front against the sky. The abstraction splitting the canvas into three sections and then intervening, linking it, knitting a pattern through it with figures intrigues me a lot - I mean the abstract background to the thing first of all. But then the subject also interests me. And because I'm of Italian origin and I react to the kind of lifestyle naturally, these subjects I've chosen to paint are the subjects which are near to my heart' (C. Young and V. Keller, Alberto Morrocco 1917-1998, Edinburgh, 2008, p. 99).
In Bathers, Fondachello, Morrocco has reduced the background of the painting to vibrant colour planes of blues, reds, greens and greys and then adds to this the brilliant white form of a nearby boat. The sea with its varied tones of blue and green dominates the work, framing the simplified forms of the bathers who are almost consumed, melting into the background. Through his highly charged use of colour, Morrocco imparts the intense Mediterranean heat to the viewer. It is this dramatic exploration of colour which has made Morrocco so renowned as an artist. In his words: 'If you are interested in colour, you want to get the full powerful value of it - you have got to let the form be less important ... So I started to use colour, trying to push it to the absolute limit of intensity within its range' (C. Young and V. Keller, Alberto Morrocco 1917-1998, Edinburgh, 2008, p. 69).