Created in 2002, “Untitled” by Nicola Samorì belongs to a significant phase in the research of the Romagna-born artist, one of the most recognized figures in contemporary Italian painting. Born in Forlì in 1977, Samorì built his language through an intense dialogue with the European figurative tradition, in particular with Baroque and seventeenth-century painting. However, the recovery of historical memory is constantly reinterpreted through processes of alteration, abrasion and transformation of the pictorial surface.
In this work, executed with the technique of fresco on panel, the dialogue between image and matter clearly emerges. At the centre of the composition appears a barely legible face, almost consumed by time, enclosed within a geometric structure in reddish tones. Moreover, the surface appears marked by drips, incisions and layers that accentuate the sense of controlled deterioration, a central element in Samorì’s poetics.
The artist intervenes on the figure not to erase it completely, but rather to highlight its fragility and transformation. Consequently, the portrait loses any celebratory function and becomes an unsettling presence, suspended between apparition and dissolution. The chromatic choice, dominated by earth tones, blacks and oxidized reds, also contributes to strengthening the material character of the work.
Through works such as this, Nicola Samorì develops a reflection on the relationship between beauty, ruin and the memory of the image. In this case, “Untitled” represents an example of his production from the early 2000s, in which ancient technique and contemporary sensibility coexist, giving life to a work of great significance.
Description: Fresco on panel, signed and dated on the reverse “Samorì/02”, H cm 85×50.
Notes: Work accompanied by a photograph of the artist with the painting, bearing on the reverse the authentication inscription “Opera mia autentica Nicola Samorì”.
Hammer Price: € 7.440,00
Auction 55 – 26 October 2022 – Modern and contemporary art, graphics and multiples
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