Fausto Melotti’s masterpiece of sculpture, which he called Alberello, focuses on a classic theme in the history of abstract art. Already the focus of Piet Mondrian’s well-known experiments, the theme of the tree also appears in the work of Melotti, who represented it in various ways after joining the abstract movement from the Thirties onward; despite his denial of naturalistic representation, the artist frequently created vertical structures which may be identified as trees. Transforming the original theme into rhythmic, modular compositions in line with his passionate investigation of musical ratios and mathematical proportions, the sculptor radically abandoned description and proposed a rational, controlled interpretation.
In this context, one particularly unusual aspect is the genesis of what he tenderly called “alberelli”, his little trees, of which the specimen in the collection is perhaps the most important in terms of size and formal elegance. The title sounds like an exaltation of the theme of fragility, a sentiment rooted in the artist’s reflection on the transitory nature of matter. The criticism of the central importance of concrete information in a work of art that pervades the sculptor’s whole artistic philosophy and finally led him toward dematerialisation of his work takes representation to the threshold of pure thought. His “alberelli” or little trees originated in 1965, at a specific time of great importance for Melotti’s reflection on sculpture, when, in his maturity, he was exploring a very personal form of expression.
Fausto Melotti
In the mid-seventies, a socio-cultural environment that was finally ready for new experimentation in aniconic art allowed Melotti to come to a turning point in his career.
The artist boldly resumed his exploration of abstraction, already begun in the paintings and plastic and ceramic works of his youth, introducing use of metal foils and fine chains, links and wires. His new technique – made up of filiform skeletons, delicate welds, and foil cut-outs – allowed him to draw linear rhythms, suspended on aerial structures which draw space rather than occupying it. This new interpretation, in which solids and hollows alternate like notes and silences on an experimental musical score, is far removed from the monumental conception of sculpture, introducing a new fragility.
BIOGRAPHY
Fausto Melotti was born in Rovereto (Trento) on 8 June 1901. At the outbreak of the First World War he went to Florence, where he completed high school and saw the works of Giotto and the great Renaissance artists, returning to his native town after the war, where he frequented Fortunato Depero. In 1918 he enrolled in the faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Pisa University, continuing his studies at Politecnico di Milano, where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1924. At the same time he took a diploma in piano and studied sculpture in Turin in the studio of sculptor Pietro Canonica. In 1928 he enrolled in the Accademia di Brera in Milan, where he studied with Adolfo Wildt, along with Lucio Fontana, with whom he established a lasting friendship. In 1932 Melotti accepted an appointment by the School of Crafts in Cantù to teach a course in modern plastic arts, and embarked on his teaching career with great interest and sensitivity, as demonstrated by his writings of the time. In 1935 his cousin Carlo Belli published “Kn”, a text which Kandinsky called “the gospel of abstract art”, a theoretical account of the experimentation of the Italian abstract artists who gathered with Belli and Melotti at Bar Craya in Milan. In this context, the idea arose of a form of art based on the rules of mathematics, proportion, and geometry, inspired by classical and Renaissance modularity and detachment from expressiveness. In 1935 the artist joined the “Abstraction-Création” movement, founded in Paris in 1931 by Van Doesburg, Seuphor, and Vantongerloo to promote the work of non-figurative artists. In the same year, he participated as a member of a group of Milanese abstract artists in the first group show of abstract art in Casorati and Paulucci’s studio in Turin. He also exhibited in Milan, holding a solo show at Galleria del Milione in which he presented sculptures inspired by a sort of “musical abstraction” in line with the work of Kandinsky and Klee. On this occasion, in the text in the catalogue, he described his work as “angelic geometric”, aspiring toward pure, complete abstraction from nature.
His first exhibition was not particularly successful in Italy, but received plenty of attention in France thanks to collector and patron Léonce Rosenberg, a key figure in the promotion of avant-garde art. Interest in his work continued, primarily abroad, and in 1937 he was awarded the international La Sarraz prize in Switzerland.
In Milan, on the occasion of the 6th Triennale exhibition in 1936, Melotti created a key work for the Sala della Coerenza designed by studio B.B.P.R.(Banfi, Belgiojoso, Peressutti, Rogers), entitled “Costante Uomo”: an environmental installation in which twelve anthropomorphic sculptures follow rhythmically one upon the other in space. In this work, the simplification of the form of the human body, recalling a Greek Kore, and the ovoidal representation of the geometric module of the strictly faceless head bring to mind Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical manikins. Between 1941 and 1943 Melotti lived in Rome, where he participated in Figini and Pollini’s project for the armed forces building, Palazzo delle Forze Armate, while producing drawings and paintings and writing poems, published in 1944 under the title “Il triste Minotauro” by prominent publisher Giovanni Scheiwiller. Melotti’s writing, lyrical, ironic, simple and often autobiographical, continued to accompany his visual art for many years. In the post-war years he focused in particular on ceramics, adopting a highly refined technique marking a return to new lightness after the dramatic war years. His “teatrini” or puppet theatres offer the enchantment of elusive, abstract narrations or evoke figures and stories. The quality of his work was acknowledged by the many prizes Melotti received, including the Gran Premio della Triennale in 1951, the gold medal of Prague and that of Munich. At this time he established strong professional and personal ties with Giò Ponti, with whom he collaborated on two major decorative projects in ceramic for Villa Planchart in Caracas (1956) and Villa Nemazee in Teheran (1960). In the mid-sixties Melotti’s sculpture clearly evolved toward use of metals. While his work was in some ways dematerialised, giving up volumes and seeking a rarefied dialectic of lines and empty spaces, in iconographic terms he became more and more allusive, tied to a metaphysical abstraction that did not give up dream-like and figurative references. 1967 marked a new turning point in the artist’s career, when he was more than sixty years old. He exhibited numerous sculptures of new inspiration at Galleria Toninelli in Milan, the success of which immediately led to a series of exhibitions in Italy and abroad. The intensification of these exhibitions rapidly led to success and allowed the public to become familiar with Melotti’s highly varied work, ranging from sculptures to bas-reliefs, from puppet theatres to works on paper and in ceramic.
Now acknowledged as one of the great innovators in European art following the Second World War, Melotti has been featured in major exhibitions in prominent cities around the world including Rome, Venice, New York, London, Zurich, Frankfurt and Paris. The artist died in Milan on 22 June 1986, and in the same month the 42nd Biennale of the Visual Arts in Venice awarded a Golden Lion to his memory.