Circular Air Trace

Giovanni D'Agostino (1932-2000) began exhibiting in 1955 with solo shows in major Italian and foreign cities, participating in important national and international exhibitions. D'Agostino's art is material, informal, and gestural. His references are initially Lucio Fontana and, in his full maturity, Alberto Burri for the intrinsic existential meaning that matter comes to assume for him. Experimentation through different media distinguishes his work. "Circular Air Trace" belongs to the "Waxes" cycle, made between 1972 and 1985, in which the spiritual contents of D'Agostino's material research reach full expression. The void of air encompassed in the thickness of the wax generates an unfinished trace that circumscribes nothingness and becomes a precarious imprint of existence, what the artist calls a phantom time that, although rationally inexplicable, exists. Like an "unconquerable" material, wax is a slippery layer dropped on the tangibility of reality, letting the imprint of its passing shine through.