In New Haven, frammento [New Haven, fragment], Vanni continues the spatial vocabulary developed in works like Strappo and Apertura sulla notte. Here too, color fields are separated not by hard contours but by fissures and seams that appear to pull the surface apart. Yet unlike Spazio a frammenti, where the surface is taut and sealed, this composition begins to breathe differently: its zones of ochre and yellow are no longer flat chromatic expanses but painterly fields where underlayers emerge through visible brushwork.
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In New Haven, frammento [New Haven, fragment], Vanni continues the spatial vocabulary developed in works like Strappo and Apertura sulla notte. Here too, color fields are separated not by hard contours but by fissures and seams that appear to pull the surface apart. Yet unlike Spazio a frammenti, where the surface is taut and sealed, this composition begins to breathe differently: its zones of ochre and yellow are no longer flat chromatic expanses but painterly fields where underlayers emerge through visible brushwork.
Within this quiet expanse, a constellation of sharply defined fragments, small squares, triangles, and directional clusters, asserts its presence with unmistakable energy. These elements do not merely decorate or activate the surface; they hold their own as protagonists, suspended in a state of delicate equilibrium with the surrounding fields. Their rhythmic spacing, angular momentum, and internal cohesion give them a sense of latent motion, as if caught mid-expansion or in the process of coalescing into larger systems.
This balance between stasis and impulse, between the stillness of layered fields and the tension carried by geometric detail, animates the composition. Vanni continues his exploration of spatial ambiguity, now enriched by a more tactile chromatic language and a deepened dialogue between surface and structure.
The increased textural interplay, and the way fields of color rest upon underlayers, suggests the lingering effect of Vanni’s exposure to the textured assertiveness of painters like Clyfford Still in New York. But in contrast, Vanni’s forms remain quiet, poised, and pictorially articulate.
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