Red Picture Gianni Dessì

The trademark use of pure red or yellow as a fundamental element in his pictures became a defining feature of Gianni Dessì’s art in the 1990s. Around this time, he also experimented with ways of interpreting the relations between chromatic effects and space, and with extending the surface of a picture beyond the limits of panel painting. His compositions, as exemplified by the structure of his Red Picture, are arranged around a dominant and formally clearly definable centre. In Red Picture, the black centre is accentuated by the white bands that radiate out from it, generating a sense of circular motion, by the concentric shapes that intersect these bands, and by the rectangle. At the same time, the tense, architectonic structure leads towards a centre in which the rational rules of sensing space appear to be suspended, opening up a new, enigmatic dimension. For the artist, space is simultaneously a physical and a symbolic entity, which enters into a dynamic relationship with the viewer, so that the connection between the space of the picture and real space, between inside and outside, is in constant motion.

Dominika Sodics