Acrylic on paper
cm 46 x 31
1984
NOTES: Signed and dated “S. Chia ‘84” lower right; on the back, label from the Alberto Valerio Gallery. Contemporary Art Gallery, Contrada S. Giovanni, 31, 25122, Brescia.
Discover the video of the artwork (right-click on the link and select “open link in another browser window”) https://youtube.com/shorts/wpq_KIMQHzQ?si=z2OL2AS5H-aaV5hB
Chia. A Nomad of Art
This painting by Sandro Chia captures our attention with its compact block of intense cobalt blue. It dates from 1984, a period when many artists were returning to painting after years of conceptual art and performance art. Society, meanwhile, had changed significantly since the classic era of the modernist avant-garde. Postmodern culture reflects this fragmentation, fluidity, and hybridization of artistic languages. Chia, like many of his contemporaries, draws on the repertoire of painting as an artistic nomad, deliberately blending styles without historical precision. In this work, the strongest reference is to the dynamic lines of Balla and Depero’s Futurism, but the massive figure reminds us of certain figures by Sironi. Each work stands on its own; the references span the centuries, and the artist asserts total freedom and stylistic autonomy.