2020-10-24
BRUNO QUERCI. A DARKER SHADE OF BLACK
Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum24 October 2020 - 5 April 2021
FRANK GERRITZ | APOSTOLOS PALAVRAKIS | BRUNO QUERCI UND KASIMIR MALEWITSCH
A DARKER SHADE OF BLACK
24 October 2020 - 5 April 2021
The Kunstmuseum Bochum presents a special in-depth look at the work of the artist Bruno Querci as part of the exhibition Frank Gerritz / Apostolos Palavrakis / Bruno Querci und Kasimir Malewitsch. A Darker Shade of Black, from 24 October 2020 to 10 January 2021.
The works on paper shown in the exhibition are brought together with the work of Kasimir Malevich to create a composite interaction between them, revealing the similarities and differences in the two artists’ vision and use of drawing in their art.
Referring to the relationship between drawing and painting, Querci himself states that: “like Malevich, I believe that art is a form of research that strives for vision and existential awareness. In drawings I see a theoretical structure and I have always followed and given precedence to this approach - looking at paintings as a spontaneous result that emerges from the drawing itself”.
Bruno Querci made a name for himself in the middle of the 1980s as the creator of an original form of painting research which contrasted with the prevalent forms of expression at the time. He was a member of the Astrazione Povera group and in 1986 he was invited by Filiberto Menna to take part in the Il meno è il più, per una astrazione povera exhibition at La Salerniana, Convento di San Carlo, in Erice.
The special section devoted to him includes large-format works made from the mid-1980s to the present day, outlining the evolution of his art, in which we see the intrinsic links between the various series of works.
Querci’s painting, which is based on his constant use of contrasting black and white, forms a journey with a gradual, measured rhythm. In works such as Luogo [Place], Pittura [Painting], Grande forma [Large Form] (1985) and Passaggio [Passage] (1986) the advances in his art can be seen in the dynamism of the encounter between form/colour and light. In these works, the desire to accentuate the rhythmical tone of the formal construction is already quite evident. The application of the black is modulated with respect to the white strips, lines, and signs, thus creating a perceptive alternation that creates a unique, particular equilibrium in each work.
In the later works, such as Formaspazio (1998), the artist redefines this equilibrium in an even more radical and geometrically essential manner, going even deeper into the description of a dialogue with infinity. The sequences of the two tonalities reveals all the communicative power of the sign and gesture, which become fragments of an realisation that the incessant flow and essence of time can never be measured.
In works like Strutturaluce (2010) and Dinamicoforma (2020) the dichotomy of black/white and light/shadow becomes more complex until it turns into a unique form of presence and absence. Energy and form are inseparable in Bruno Querci’s artistic research, creating real, concrete “bodies” while also revealing to the viewer that it is possible to go beyond the threshold of the container and enter into an image of pure energy.
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