Antonio Calderara (1903-1978) - Orizzonte bicromo

“I would like to paint the void that contains completeness, silence and light. I would like to paint the infinity.” Antonio Calderara

This delicate and contemplative work, Orizzonte (1971), perfectly encapsulates Antonio Calderara’s mature artistic vision. Executed in watercolor on cardboard, the composition is reduced to its essential elements: a subtle vertical format articulated by soft tonal transitions and a restrained horizontal division, evoking a horizon suspended between material presence and immaterial perception. The nearly imperceptible shifts in tone and the quiet geometry create a sense of stillness and transcendence, inviting the viewer into a space of introspection and infinite calm.

Calderara, originally influenced by figurative painting, gradually evolved towards an austere and luminous abstraction, becoming one of the most refined voices of European post-war minimalism. His work resonates deeply with the spiritual abstraction of artists such as Josef Albers, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Ad Reinhardt, while maintaining a uniquely intimate and meditative character. The subtle modulation of light and surface recalls affinities with Giorgio Morandi, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, and Piero Manzoni, as well as later dialogues with artists like Gotthard Graubner, Günther Förg, Imi Knoebel, Blinky Palermo, and Gerhard Richter.

Closely associated with the intellectual and artistic milieu of post-war abstraction, Calderara’s practice also finds parallels with the ZERO movement (Otto Piene, Heinz Mack) and the reductive tendencies of artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, and Robert Ryman. His works are held in major museum collections and are highly sought after for their serene yet rigorous exploration of space, light, and proportion.

This piece stands as a poetic embodiment of Calderara’s lifelong pursuit: the rendering of silence, the visualization of infinity, and the transformation of minimal means into profound visual experience.

Medium: Watercolor on cardboard. Signature: Signed on the verso