Urban Chaos

Work sheet

Urban Chaos · work code BU96

Technical data

year2023
purchase dateacquired in the portfolio
estimated current value in €consult the updated Price Table
identification of the subjectabstract painting/reconstructivist work
materials and techniquesoil on canvas/mixed media/material work
measurements in centimeters cm100 x 80 x 5
inscriptionssignature
inscription techniqueoil
inscription positionon the back/bottom/right
transcriptionValvo
authenticity certificateissued at the same time as the sale
art multiplesno print issued
state of conservationintact work
location of the workRome · Italy
copyright© all rights reserved · global · S.I.A.E.

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Raisuli Oimar Tancredi Valvo · Caos Urbano · 2023 · Picture 0 · © All rights reserved S.I.A.E.
Urban Chaos · work code BU96

Description of work

Urban Chaos

To understand this work… you have to get dirty.
In the true sense of the word.
This is a work literally soiled by the engine grease of railway switches and mechanical parts of 19th century steam trains. By the smell of paraffin. By the smell of coal. It is a job dirty with soot, smoke and dense, dark fog, which forms in urban and industrial areas in the presence of high humidity and strong concentrations of polluting particles, released into the atmosphere by heating systems, vehicular traffic and industrial activities. This is a canvas smeared with human life. The composition “speaks” through the sounds of the tracks, the crowded streets, the chugging of the trains, the buzz of the people, the shouts, the laughter, the cries and the silences, typical of the major urban centers of the early 1900s, of their alleys, streets, squares, suburban areas.
The crowd.
The crowd is the central node. It is the chaos, precisely, specific to every city with a high demographic concentration.
The collective frenzy. The rush. The rapidity of actions. The speed of movements and communications.
The painting brings to mind the American film production of the 40s and 50s, the crowded New York streets of the 30s, the underground vapors that escape from the manholes, as well as the walkways in Tokyo, in the city centre.
A Noir opera, one might say. Or again, a Fumé work, with an underground flavour.
The composition also recalls, in some aspects, certain oriental Chinese and Japanese inks.
There is also a notable correlation with some works by Henri Michaux, a 20th century Belgian artist who later became French.
If it is plausible to speak, regarding the author, of a typical concentration of elements of a different nature, as a stylistic component generally identifying the authorship of the works, in this case this is truer than ever. Here, we are at the limit of saturation. Thousands of active and mutually interacting factors. A plethora of nervous graphic particles closely interconnected. An endless multitude of overlapping planes. The infinity of hatchings. The diffusion of material smoke. The carbonization of the canvas. The browning of the areas. All in the total absence of polychromy. Here it is the black that dominates, together with the whiteness of the light. Nothing else. Black and white alone convey the semantic totality of the painting, preventing access to even the slightest chromaticism and establishing, in an inescapable way, the definitive character of the composition.
It is almost impossible to decode the totality of relationships between particles. The overall vision, the optical impact, is what we must use to absorb the profound meaning of what we have in front of our eyes. Strictly speaking, therefore, the work should not be “read” but perceived as a whole. In its incremental logic. In its hyperdynamic nature.

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