Dal di fuori 1952

Atanasio Soldati made this, ‘Dal di fuori’ which means ‘From the outside,’ with oil on canvas, but it feels like something of the inside, too. I love imagining the quiet focus Soldati must have had to achieve these incredibly clean lines, and how the different colours meet. I wonder if he worked on one section at a time, letting areas dry before adding the colours beside them? The composition has so much going on, yet the palette is quite controlled: reds, greens, yellows, blues, black and purple, all grounded by that band of Prussian blue running along the bottom. I wonder if the title refers to all the forms emerging, pushing their way out from the confines of the canvas? There’s a conversation here with artists like Mondrian and Albers, all figuring out how shapes and colours relate to each other – a conversation that continues to this day.