Pittura R BL 1985

Curator: So, what catches your eye about Pino Pinelli's "Pittura R BL" from 1985? I see pure kinetic energy, like a visual echo. Editor: Red darts aimed toward... nothing, really. Or everything. It's spare, almost diagrammatic, but undeniably bold, that pure cadmium red against the stark white wall. Is it acrylic, would you know? I'm thinking of its particular flatness, versus the sheen we might get from an oil. Curator: Acrylic on… well, space, essentially. It's part of his 'scattered painting' series, moving painting off the canvas, engaging directly with the architectural space, escaping the boundaries of conventional picture frames, you might say. Editor: I notice that this form of production foregrounds not just color but placement and the labor involved in creating multiple discrete elements, as well as the tension inherent in installation, no? Like considering it piece by piece, the effort of making, carrying, and installing each individual bar. That gives the image weight, a kind of maker's burden in three dimensions. Curator: Precisely. There’s an inherent rebellion here. Painting unshackled, liberated. The viewer's movement completes it. Each perspective becomes unique, subjective. To me it feels like fragments of memory or emotion scattered, wanting to coalesce but always just beyond reach. Editor: Or consider the historical context—the Art Informel movement he's associated with! Post-war anxiety turned into an uninhibited handling of materials. I find it relevant to think of production. He challenges the boundaries, certainly; even challenges commodity. Could one just “produce” a Pinelli? How much is instruction, and how much is craft, in a work such as this? Curator: Well, for Pinelli, it was about the gesture, the moment of creation released into space. Almost performative, like action painting breaking free. That bold stroke and that mysterious black blob. They just barely contain what threatens to spill over...a universe contained. Editor: Yet it makes me reflect upon where the production is centralized, what spaces the art could be produced in, who may get hired to construct these, and, inevitably, how easily they may be integrated into various levels of the economy. But then I also realize that my emphasis on the production itself also draws attention back to your idea of the gesture as the subject: What gestures will become monumental in their construction, circulation, and reception? Curator: A very solid read, to make sure nothing gets overlooked! I feel my own gaze scatter, just like the pieces, reforming it through my history. The artist gets to scatter, and the viewer reconstructs. Editor: Right. We started with that scatter, and have circled round to that moment where scatter reveals a peculiar organization.