“La Seconda Volta” (San Raffaele a Lesbo)

Details

With a photo expertise by Cristina Tuarivoli, Archivio Salvo, Turin. This painting is registered in the Archivio Salvo under the number S 2013-16. Provenance: Private collection, Italy.

Descrizione

• Salvo was initially part of the Turin “Arte Povera” movement and exhibited together with Gian Enzo Sperone
• In the 1970s he turned to painting and developed his characteristic style, with deserted dream landscapes, flat depictions and a unique use of light
• Considered one of the most important Italian artists of the 20th century, he took part in documenta V in Kassel in 1972. Salvo’s artistic roots can be found in the Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s. From 1969 to 1972 he shared a studio in Turin with Alighiero Boetti, who was also self-taught. In 1972, Salvo was invited to take part in documenta V in the “Individual Mythologies” section, an idea from Harald Szeemann, in which the artist’s retreated into the private sphere and used symbolic visual languages shaped by the their own individual experiences and memories. Although Salvo turned away from conceptual art as early as 1973 and from then on devoted himself primarily to traditional painting, themes such as memory and inner perspective significantly shaped the artist’s work. “La Seconda Volta” shows the famous monastery of Agios Raphael on Lesbos as a deserted place; there is a magical, almost poetic atmosphere that has strong echoes of the abandoned dream worlds of Giorgio de Chirico.