In Torneo [Tournament], Vanni enters a new phase in which tension arises from the interplay of small, intensely detailed star-shaped forms with each other and with the surrounding red field. That field is composed through three successive applications: a first, thin layer of carmine that deliberately lets the weave of the canvas show through; a fragmentary application of medium red; and final daubs of scarlet impasto around the stellar shapes. The result is a surface that breathes and vibrates with internal energy.
In Torneo [Tournament], Vanni enters a new phase in which tension arises from the interplay of small, intensely detailed star-shaped forms with each other and with the surrounding red field. That field is composed through three successive applications: a first, thin layer of carmine that deliberately lets the weave of the canvas show through; a fragmentary application of medium red; and final daubs of scarlet impasto around the stellar shapes. The result is a surface that breathes and vibrates with internal energy.
The layering of color creates the impression that these star-like forms are generating magnetic fields that attract and organize the most luminous particles of their environment. Floating like suspended filaments, the jewel-like elements, triangular or stellar in shape, rendered in turquoise, yellow, and white, evoke crystalline structures or radiolarian protozoa. Rather than being painted over the surface, they are inscribed on areas left bare in the earlier layers, which integrates them seamlessly into the pictorial space and allows for subtle gradations between the forms and their surrounding field.
Gone is any vestige of grid-based composition. What takes its place are crystalline irradiations, at once biological and cosmic. Vanni continues to move away from the immersive ethos of Color Field painting. Rather than presenting color as a singular, enveloping subject, he constructs it as a structured environment animated by internal relationships. The subtle emergence of texture draws his work closer to the poetics of Arte Informale, offering a glimpse of the direction his painting is about to take.
