Plexiglass structure, signed FRANCO CANNILLA (1911- 1984)

born in Caltagirone on 13 February 1911, he died in Rome at the end of 1984. Initially approaching the local school of ceramics, his language approached a progressive abstraction of the plastic form, concretised in the 1950s in a search for proportional harmony through the use of the module, for the realisation of concrete art objects also in relation to new industrial materials. From the first sculptures, in which violent movements and gestures verge on abstraction in some cases, he arrived at strictly abstract compositions, in which the relationship with modern technology is evident. In fact, at the beginning of the 1960s, he moved towards solutions of a constructivist nature, of perceptive solicitation, close to kinetic research. He changed the use of materials and also adopted industrially produced materials such as steel, Plexiglas, etc. In 1961, Giovanni Carandente introduced him into the personal catalogue of the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice. And with this kinetic-constructivist work he installed a personal room at the XXXIII Venice Biennale in 1966, with a text by Giuseppe Gatt in the catalogue. In 1968 he was awarded first prize at the VI Roman Biennale. In the 1970s, he also worked intensively in the field of abstract photography.
Franco Cannilla's work bears witness to the artist's adherence to the Gestalt or Neo-constructivist trend. This definition, rigorously theorised by Giulio Carlo Argan (XIII International Congress of Rimini), was divulged in articles in 'Il Messaggero' in August 1963 and, in a way, distinguished from the international optic-kinetic tendencies that emerged in 1959/60.
This type of work by Cannilla does not lend itself to psychic or psychological consumption: they are given intact and intangible to perception and in the very instant that 'the eye takes them in, perception ceases to be a sensory trauma and rises to the level of an intellectual act. These objects are meters of space and selectors of light."
Diagonal x side: 143 x 100.5 cm
Item condition grading: ***** excellent.
Accompanied by authentication by Giorgio Tempesti