Work sheet
Technical data
| year | 2023 |
| purchase date | acquired in the portfolio |
| estimated current value in € | consult the updated Price Table |
| identification of the subject | abstract painting/reconstructivist work |
| materials and techniques | oil on canvas/mixed media/material work |
| measurements in centimeters cm | 80 x 60 x 1,8 |
| inscriptions | signature |
| inscription technique | oil |
| inscription position | on the back/bottom/right |
| transcription | Valvo |
| authenticity certificate | issued at the same time as the sale |
| art multiples | no print issued |
| state of conservation | intact work |
| location of the work | Rome · Italy |
| copyright | © all rights reserved · global · S.I.A.E. |
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Description of work
Oxidation of a Dream
If we have to talk about dreams, here the artist seems to wink at the roundness of the green and suspended apples present in René Magritte’s paintings. Just as, moreover, he seems to echo, in some aspects, the anti-gravity and floating lightness of the protagonists of Marc Chagall’s works. The structure of the work also has certain references to “The Vision of Tondalo” by Hieronymus Bosch, another work belonging to a decidedly dreamlike genre.
The framework of the work rests on an unequivocally linear scheme, made up of well-pronounced angularities and quadratures. This regularity is, however, functional and hierarchically subordinate to the two circular and material figures present in the foreground: one on the left side, the other in the body of the right half of the canvas. In fact, it is precisely the roundness of these two elements that gives the imprinting to the entire work, softening the overall visual impact and giving dynamism to the whole. A functional and closely interconnected whole. Almost synchronized.
The rounds and squares hover weightlessly within the pictorial space, in a swirling aerostatic ascent. The key to reading the work is therefore the lightness of the whole. Absolute lightness. The most complete weightlessness. An absence that goes hand in hand with the ideal concept of instability, an inseparable characteristic of the dream and subconscious phases. The apparent absence of masses causes the levitation of the elements involved. Levitation, in turn, triggers the specific dynamism we witness. The latter is revealed in the chaotic community of streaks and trails the various parts generate as they pass. The mechanics of dreams.
The pictorial area is tripartite. In fact, a central and horizontal band of dark tone separates the two white bands placed at the antipodes.
The small white and ascending squares nevertheless claim their chromatic space, generating, all around them, a sort of whitish and evanescent aura that surrounds them.
The circular figures, on the contrary, stand out clearly with strong contrast compared to the dark blue background color. As long as we can talk about background. The work, in fact, as is typical of Valvo’s style, is never structured into split and clearly definable dimensional planes. There is, rather, a widespread three-dimensionality, relating to a rich multitude of distinct but always communicating levels. This aspect is prevalent in the works of this author: the concept of plurality of parallel and simultaneous universes. The infinite depth of field. The temporal interconnection. The idea of ubiquity.
A dark blue serpentine, a recurring symbol in Valvo, is hidden here within the central color background, in a total absence of contrast.
Typical blue and white lines cut the spaces, with a strong difference compared to the underlying shade. They are also clothed in symbolism.
Subtle diagonals dissect the spaces here and there, definitively sealing the widespread obliquity of the trajectories as well as the authorship of the work.
This is a dream, and like all dreams worthy of the name, it is intrinsically inscrutable, although perceivable. And, mainly in the immeasurable extension of the internal depths, which suggest the presence of real but, indeed, difficult to scrutinize spaces and dimensions, the semantics of this work finds fulfillment. Perceivable but elusive. Only the “oxidation”, the pictorial crystallization of this ongoing flow, therefore opens a visual window onto an active process we can enjoy instantaneously but which cannot help but escape us in its entirety.
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