Natura Morta con la Carne

Balancing its figurative subject matter with the formal language of gestural abstraction, this heavily worked canvas uses a sickly green and vermillion to achieve a lurid impression of a slab of raw meat. Drawing influence fromthe famously impasto treatments of meat by artists such as Chaim Soutine, Saroni uses thick globs of oil paint to achieve a tactile, visceral effect. At the center of the picture, dripping paint acts as both index of the artist’s action and suggests the bloodied flesh. Saroni’s violent brushstrokes have a swift, slicing quality that further suits his subject.

Born and trained in Turin, Saroni’s work first came to international attention at the Venice Biennale in 1956. Here, his work was celebrated for its balance of spontaneity and exacting skill. Much like COBRA, a group of artists working in dialogue in Northern Europe,Saroni created works that strike a careful balancing act between figuration and abstraction in post-World War II Europe.This painting seems to have been first exhibited at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto before being sent to Pittsburgh, where it was exhibited in and purchased from the Carnegie International in 1958.

Global Gestures: Post-War Abstraction from the Lowenthal Collection (2.15-3.21.2019)