Bianco 1966

Agostino Bonalumi made this subtle artwork called Bianco, presumably with canvas, wood, and white paint. I imagine Bonalumi in the studio, quietly stretching the canvas and then building up the forms with wood behind it. What kind of white is this? Is it matte or glossy? How many layers did he apply to get this effect? Was he thinking of Fontana, and his slashed canvases? What if the canvas was a skin, pulled tightly over the frame, and the protrusions were almost like tumors, or scars? I can feel the stretch and pull of the material. Bonalumi worked with Enrico Castellani and Piero Manzoni, and their work was all about surface and form, a response to the gestural abstraction that came before. It is all part of the grand conversation artists have through time. What a cool idea: to go beyond the flat picture plane and enter into the real world of bumps.