Sanfilippo’s work is entirely based on the expressive power of the sign. In 1957 the
artist’s approach to painting began to alter under the influence of a series of different
stimuli, some of which can be seen in Numerous Spaces, including the use of
black and white derived from the work of his wife Carla Accardi. The painting also
appears to be torn between a desire to cover the entire surface due to an obsessive
horror vacui and a desire to leave pictorial voids where unusual chromatic combinations
find place. This oscillation between closely-meshed signs and free
spaces, solids and voids, noise and silence, black and white and notes of colour, reflects
the inner universe of Antonio Sanfilippo, introverted and contemplative, energetic
and intense, who allows his sensibility to explode and implode at the same
time on the canvas. Bibl: Antonio Sanfilippo (1923-1980), a cura di F. D’Amico, Milano 2001. (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma)