Untitled 1977

This untitled painting by Giorgio Cavallon, we don't know exactly when, is pure process. A kind of dance between shapes and colors, not aiming for representation, but letting the painting reveal itself. Look at how Cavallon layers the paint. He applies it thinly, almost staining the canvas in places, then builds up these blocks of opaque color. The materiality of the paint is key. The surface is alive with subtle variations, like the brushstrokes that make up that almost floating gray form in the upper center of the canvas. Is it a cloud? A memory? Cavallon's work makes me think of the later paintings of Milton Avery, where color and form also merge into these distilled, poetic expressions. And like Avery, Cavallon shows us that a painting doesn’t have to shout to be heard; sometimes, the quietest voices resonate the longest. Ultimately it’s a conversation, a question, not a statement.