Viaggio nel paese delle meraviglie

Journey in Wonderland is a sort of imaginary travel sketchbook spread out on canvas. During his wanderings Novelli jotted down the thoughts prompted by imprecise signs and primitive languages. His interest in this linguistic aspect ripened through contact with Gruppo 63 and the founding of the magazine Grammatica. Here he displays the potential of his “magical language”, making it possible “to capture the world through a collection of signs, letters, samples of materials and cherished objects” to be catalogued in a kaleidoscopic “anthology of the possible” (BONANI, RINALDI AND TIDDIA, pp. 53-60). A reading of the work thus becomes an exploration and discovery of symbols, which emerge from milky white space and give rise through their constant transformation to a narrative flow where man and the four elements meet together with winds and “fluctuations”, a kite, mountains and undergrowth, footprints and a gossamer butterfly urged by the artist to go on exploring the wonders indefinitely. (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma) BIBL: Gastone Novelli. Catalogo generale, a cura di P. Bonani, M. Rinaldi, A. Tiddia, Milano 2011.