Emilio Isgrò (1937) - Sans Titre

The most experienced collectors and connoisseurs will notice an incredibly rare feature in this work by the master Emilio Isgrò: the subtle shading of the erasure, with words left partially visible only to those who are attentive and curious.

This is a distinctive feature of this screen print, produced in just 40 copies, which makes it unique within the master’s body of work. He usually either erases a word completely or leaves it visible; here, however, we have the added “shading of the erasure.”

Through his erasures, Emilio Isgrò was a great pioneer in sounding the alarm about the devaluation and decline of words, language, and the value words possess—a phenomenon we are experiencing now more than ever.
The master began denouncing in 1964 what has now become part of everyday life, plain for all to see: we notice this loss of value in words, understood as vehicles for ideas and capable of taking many forms—in television debates, printed news, media coverage, and the increasingly less reading-oriented society we are creating.
Fewer words, less culture in circulation—but beyond critical discussions of art, what does this mean for society?
The ability to reason—and I would add, the ability to reason critically and independently—is determined by the quantity and quality of the vocabulary a person possesses. We cannot think beyond the words we know, just as we cannot build a house without all the necessary materials: the more materials are lacking, the less complete, stable, and viable the house will be.
By limiting words, we also limit the concepts one can create and the ability to express them or oneself.
Once we understand the axiom that fewer words mean fewer thoughts, Isgrò’s work takes on immense cultural and artistic value.
Concealing words behind erasure is the master’s way of making the viewer curious, encouraging us to look beneath the word and imagine what might have been there in relation to what is left “free” to be read.
It is a conceptual process of discovery, investigation, and reflection on words and their arrangement, almost as if Isgrò were taking on the pedagogical role of a teacher, as well as that of an intellectual.
But Isgrò is not merely a “teacher”; he is also a creator of new syntactic and formal rules, a developer of new stories, and an astute satirist. The master is what an intellectual should be: an “awakener of consciences.”
Emilio Isgrò thus occupies a place in art history as a guardian of words and, by extension, of culture—a vital role that we need more and more.

The work measures 80 x 60 cm.

The edition number may not correspond to the number shown in the photograph.

The work comes from Galleria Grafica Manzoni, which provides its certificate of authenticity.