Gilberto Zorio (1944) - Stella

Title: Stella - late 1980s / early 1990s
Artist: Gilberto Zorio (1944)
Technique: Mixed technique on book: acrylic and marker on two pages 24-25
Signature: artist's signature in the center, integrated into the work
Book dimensions: 16 × 24 cm
Overall dimensions of the work: 27 × 37 cm
Museums: Zorio's works are in the collections of the world's leading international contemporary art museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, the Museo del Novecento in Milan, MAXXI in Rome, etc.. institutions that attest to the international recognition of his artistic research.
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Description:
Original work belonging to Gilberto Zorio’s celebrated investigation of the five-pointed star, one of the most recognizable and intense signs of his poetics.
The work is realized directly on a book, specifically on two open pages, 24 and 25, an integral part of the piece.
Therefore the work consists not only of the star, but of the book itself transformed by the artist’s intervention. The support is not peripheral, but essential: Zorio intervenes with red acrylic and black marker on a double page, bringing together writing and gesture, word and sign, matter and energy.
The two pages contain a series of aphorisms with a satirical and corrosive tone, which become an active part of the composition:
• “Frankenstein: tonight I feel Pieces”
• “Unsold books: dead and unkept”
• “New Year’s greetings – Danton to Robespierre: a sincere wish for good heads”
• …..
The presence of these short, brilliant and provocative texts makes the book particularly significant: the star does not overlap a neutral surface, but traverses a field already charged with language, irony, and tension.
Under one tip of the star is present the artist’s signature drawn in black with strong gesturality, integrated into the visual field of the work. The signature, hand-made and perfectly coherent with the graphic intervention of the piece, constitutes a further element of authenticity and enhances the direct presence of the artist in the work.

Artistic context
Gilberto Zorio is a central figure of the Arte Povera movement, among the most important Italian artists of the second half of the twentieth century.
Since the 1970s the artist uses the star in numerous works – installations, sculptures, and works on paper – as a sign capable of activating space and transforming materials.
In this work the star enters into a relation with written language, creating a tension between the energy of the sign and the material of the book, one of the fundamental conceptual cores of Zorio’s poetics.

Shipping
The work will be shipped carefully packaged; in-person pickup is possible, it is located in Milan.