Involved in the
“Pittura Analitica” [Analytical Painting] or “Pittura-Pittura” [Painting-Painting] movement, Claudio Verna was part of a small group of artists who, towards the end of the 1960’s, felt the need to return to painting, at a time when many considered it a dying form of art. These artists explored and analysed the very essence of painting, concentrating on its most fundamental constructive elements such as space, form, and colour.
A leading figure within the movement, Verna’s works from 1967 to 1977 embody the essence of what could be considered the Italian response to Minimalism. From Hard-edge to Colour Field, one could draw many parallels with North American painting from the 1960’s, including leading figures such as Frank Stella, Barnett Newman and Kenneth Noland. However, from 1978 onwards Verna achieved a different dimension, where the gesture is liberated and colour releases its internal energy.
The artist has often been called "master of color", as color research has made the center of his entire career of over 50 years. For Verna, white is never a neutral pigment or a symbol of emptiness. In fact, white is the colour which contains all other colours within itself. Verna’s white paintings are never actually white; they present an ever changing complex fabric of juxtaposed colours allowing him to continue experimenting with different ways to layer his paintings.
Equally, his black paintings such as “Aegizio ‘78”, are only apparently black, while making colours resurface from the recesses of the dark canvas space. These works, which share with the all the others an attention to the visual implications of format and brushstroke, as well as to light and form, are an integral part of the lifelong research of the artist on colour perception and interaction, as well as a significant contribution to the general discourse of abstract painting, of which he continues to be an active protagonist.
Pittura (1974) by Claudio VernaTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Controluce 6 (2011) by Claudio VernaTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Claudio Verna was born in Guardiagrele, (in the province of Chieti - Italy), in 1937.
Claudio Verna studied at the University of Florence, where he graduated with a thesis on “Figurative Arts in Industrial Civilization” and where he held his first exhibitions. In 1961 he moved to Rome, where he still lives and works. After the debut at the Galleria Numero di Firenze in 1960, over a hundred personal exhibitions were held in Italy and abroad, including the Venice Biennale in 1970 and 1980, and the anthology in the Gibellina Museums in 1988, Spoleto in 1994, Ferrara in 1997, Conegliano in 1998, Treviso in 2000, L'Aquila in 2007 and the Mudima Foundation in Milan in 2012.
At the same time he is present in numerous group exhibitions and international exhibitions in Düsseldorf, London, Philadelphia, Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Darmstadt, Cologne, Moscow, Leningrad, Grenoble, Nice, Prague, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and many cities Italian, obtaining various awards.In 2008 the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awarded him the "Antonio Feltrinelli" Prize for painting. He was nominated National Academic of the Accademia di San Luca.In 2010 the Reasoned Catalog of his work was published by Volker W. Feierabend and Marco Meneguzzo, for Silvana Editoriale (MI).
La geometria negata I (2005) by Claudio VernaTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
This virtual exhibition was brought together with Cardi Gallery on the occasion of the Exhibition “Claudio Verna Solo show” curated by Piero Tomassoni visitable from the 18.09.2018 to the 20.12.2018.
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