On the artistic scene of the late 1960s (his beginnings go back to 1965), Gianni Piacentino was a distinctive artist, identifying geometric figures in essential forms, and characterising them, above all, in the materials used to decorate them: from nitrocellulose enamel to bodywork paint, to acrylics sought for special colour effects. This “sbarra” (bar) of 1970 is interesting because the name of the artist becomes an element characterising the work itself, and part of its decoration. In our opinion, the ideal position for it is above a door, at a height at which you are forced to raise your head to capture the purity and essentiality of its forms, with this signature in the middle that is almost a mark of identity.
Another type of works by Piacentino are those inspired by vehicles. In which the dynamism of the forms, the sophisticated colours (as in all his work), the industrial paints, the details themselves lead one to think of vehicles created for the myth of speed.
Instead, they are static structures that will never move. The notion of mechanical dynamics is instilled in all their details, but they are then denied the effectual reality of “movement”, through the choice of the artist.