Emilio Vedova (1919-2006)

‘Vedova saw the spirit of revolution in even the most sensuous, luscious brushstrokes.’
– Christopher Masters

Torrential forces converge and explode in Emilio Vedova’s Per la Spagna 1962 - n. 9, 1962, which was painted as part of the artist’s celebrated cycle Per la Spagna for exhibition at the Ca’ Giustinian at the 8th Venice Biennale. Slashes and scratches of grey, ochre and white writhe and quake, and making the surface of the work a dense vortex of volatile energy. Formally, the painting recalls works by the American Abstract Expressionists, namely the black and white gestural compositions of Franz Kline. Indeed, Vedova hoped to ‘break through limits… to create a continuity of space and time’ contained within his canvases (A. García, ‘Dream and Wakefulness: Reflections on the World of Emilio Vedova’, in Emilio Vedova, exh. cat., Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trento, 1996, p. 98). But despite these aesthetic affiliations, Vedova also considered his paintings to be ‘a cry for freedom at all costs’ (E. Vedova, Scontro di Situazioni lecture given on September 27, 1962). The artist’s insistence on representational form as an articulation and a response to the world’s social issues determined his painterly output. As Vedova himself explained, ‘A sort of self-defence, an extreme consciousness, contributed to make it possible for me not to be lost in such a state... My works are being built up…and these structures are the structures of my own consciousness’ (E. Vedova, Scontro di Situazioni lecture given on September 27, 1962).