“Ricordo di mia madre” (“Memory of My Mother”) by Sandro Chia, created in 1974, belongs to an early phase of the artist’s career, preceding his full emergence as one of the leading figures of the Transavanguardia movement. For this reason, the work is of particular interest, documenting a period of open experimentation in which Chia explored a non-figurative pictorial language built through gesture, colour fields, and spatial tension.
The composition unfolds across a light-coloured surface animated by broad, gestural black marks that appear to move freely through the pictorial space. However, the marks are far from random. Instead, the sweeping curves, areas of shadow, and more compact forms establish a carefully balanced visual structure, suspended between emotional impulse and compositional control.
The title, “Ricordo di mia madre”, also introduces an intimate and autobiographical dimension. Although the work avoids recognisable imagery, the artist appears to translate memory into an abstract structure composed of presences, absences, and inner movements. In this sense, the mixed-media technique allows for greater expressive freedom, combining materiality, gesture, and tonal depth.
Overall, the work bears witness to a significant stage in Sandro Chia’s artistic development, in which abstraction became a means of processing personal memory. The result is a work that is both restrained and deeply expressive, uniting gestural energy, emotional reflection, and painterly experimentation.
Description: Mixed media on canvas, bearing on the reverse the signature, date, and title “Sandro / Chia / 74 / Ricordo di / mia / madre”, H cm 90×120.
Provenance: Private Collection, Bologna; Galleria La Scaletta (Gianni Bianconcini).
Hammer Price: € 5.715,00
Auction 65 – December 6th 2023 – Contemporary Art – Design
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