Claudio Olivieri

1934, Rome, Italy - 2019, Milan, Italy

Claudio Olivieri was one of the leading figures of Italian Analytical Painting. After studying at the Brera Academy in Milan, he developed a body of work centred on the relationship between colour, light and the perception of space. His works gradually abandoned gestural marks to build light, almost immaterial surfaces, where painting becomes atmosphere and luminous presence. Through glazes and extremely subtle gradations, Olivieri created suspended images that seem to appear slowly before the eye. He took part several times in the Venice Biennale, in Documenta in Kassel, and in the Rome Quadrennial. He taught at NABA in Milan until 2011.

In Improbabile there is no precise figure to recognise. The work feels instead like a luminous apparition, something slowly emerging from the surface of the canvas.
The pale yellow and the grey-lilac tones meet almost imperceptibly, creating a silent, unstable space. The shadows at the sides seem to draw near and dissolve at the same moment.
Olivieri manages to turn colour into pure atmosphere, leaving the viewer with a sensation rather than a defined image.