tessi on Nostr: SALVATORE EMBLEMA Naples 1929-2006 “This light can't be found in colors made in ...
SALVATORE EMBLEMA
Naples 1929-2006
“This light can't be found in colors made in factories.
This is the reason why i used material from the volcano to make the color.
But not even this was so important to me.
What was important to me was to go beyond the picture without refusing it, this picture."
The development of his approach during a formative period of his career,
and across which an array of influences are palpable. The artist’s engagement
with the interplay between space, colour, texture and light – and the creation of
compositions relying on pure pigment and abstract, minimalist forms –
foreground his focus on the notion of transparency in painting, which would go
on to become a lifelong subject of enquiry. This fascination with transparency is
best reflected in his preference for sackcloth and raw jute as painting supports.
Considering the materials’ open-weave structure, the artist emphasises the
journey of light as it penetrates the surface, light being a guiding principle above
all else. ‘I was born on the 25th of April 1929. To be exact, I saw the light of day.
And once I saw that light, I could never leave it. I belong to light’, the artist has
stated.
Emblema was born in Terzigno, Naples, which sits at the foot of Mount
Vesuvius and overlooks the archaeological site of Pompeii. In 1944 he witnessed
the last major eruption of the volcano, which smothered his hometown in layers
of ash. This experience had a profound impact on the artist, instilling in him an
awareness of how landscape, identity and geological conditions inform each
other. In the late 1940s, Emblema decided to withdraw from his studies at
Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli, choosing instead to travel to Rome, where he
first began working with dried leaves and jute sacks. Though this was a decision
initially driven by financial limitations, the artist attested: ‘my main concern was
to have a direct relationship with truth, with what I felt was truth. Leaves and
sackcloth were truth to me’. It was during this period that Emblema also met
Jean Dubuffet, whose unorthodox approach – including mixing oil paint with
mud, sand, glass, gravel and cement – further encouraged his interest in working
with materials widely considered debased, in pursuit of the natural, textural and
earthly.
In 1957, Emblema was invited to New York by David Rockefeller, who was a
significant supporter of his practice. There, he encountered the Abstract
Expressionists, including Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, whose studios he
frequented. It was also in New York, ironically, that Emblema discovered the
vibrancy of Roman frescoes and the ancient secrets of Pompeii on his visits to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Salvatore Emblema
1997 -120 x 100 cm ( 47,24
X 39,37 inches)
Raw pigments mixed with volcano soil
on de-threaded jute canvas
Naples 1929-2006
“This light can't be found in colors made in factories.
This is the reason why i used material from the volcano to make the color.
But not even this was so important to me.
What was important to me was to go beyond the picture without refusing it, this picture."
The development of his approach during a formative period of his career,
and across which an array of influences are palpable. The artist’s engagement
with the interplay between space, colour, texture and light – and the creation of
compositions relying on pure pigment and abstract, minimalist forms –
foreground his focus on the notion of transparency in painting, which would go
on to become a lifelong subject of enquiry. This fascination with transparency is
best reflected in his preference for sackcloth and raw jute as painting supports.
Considering the materials’ open-weave structure, the artist emphasises the
journey of light as it penetrates the surface, light being a guiding principle above
all else. ‘I was born on the 25th of April 1929. To be exact, I saw the light of day.
And once I saw that light, I could never leave it. I belong to light’, the artist has
stated.
Emblema was born in Terzigno, Naples, which sits at the foot of Mount
Vesuvius and overlooks the archaeological site of Pompeii. In 1944 he witnessed
the last major eruption of the volcano, which smothered his hometown in layers
of ash. This experience had a profound impact on the artist, instilling in him an
awareness of how landscape, identity and geological conditions inform each
other. In the late 1940s, Emblema decided to withdraw from his studies at
Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli, choosing instead to travel to Rome, where he
first began working with dried leaves and jute sacks. Though this was a decision
initially driven by financial limitations, the artist attested: ‘my main concern was
to have a direct relationship with truth, with what I felt was truth. Leaves and
sackcloth were truth to me’. It was during this period that Emblema also met
Jean Dubuffet, whose unorthodox approach – including mixing oil paint with
mud, sand, glass, gravel and cement – further encouraged his interest in working
with materials widely considered debased, in pursuit of the natural, textural and
earthly.
In 1957, Emblema was invited to New York by David Rockefeller, who was a
significant supporter of his practice. There, he encountered the Abstract
Expressionists, including Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, whose studios he
frequented. It was also in New York, ironically, that Emblema discovered the
vibrancy of Roman frescoes and the ancient secrets of Pompeii on his visits to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Salvatore Emblema
1997 -120 x 100 cm ( 47,24
X 39,37 inches)
Raw pigments mixed with volcano soil
on de-threaded jute canvas