EXHIBITION - GIAN BERTO VANNI

THE EARLY YEARS - 1952–1960

With Inverno [Winter], Vanni advances his departure from direct landscape observation toward a compositional space structured entirely by internal logic. Though the Dutch countryside remains a latent presence, hinted at in the horizontal stratification and the low, panoramic expanse, the painting no longer describes a place. It evokes one. The grid here does not impose order but initiates a subtle disarticulation: a network of prismatic planes that dissolves any fixed perspective, edging closer to the faceted figuration that would define his later Parisian work.

Color becomes the central agent of meaning. Under Albers’s influence, Vanni refines his palette into breath-like modulations of pale blue, ivory, ochre, and ash. These are not symbolic hues but relational ones, orchestrated with restraint to construct a space that is luminous, quiet, and abstracted from season. Inverno stands on a threshold, no longer a translation of nature, not yet fully introspective, but already committed to a painting that generates meaning from within, independent of motif.