Homage to Chevrier
Ferdinando Chevrier was one of the leading artists in MAC (Movimento Arte Concreta), the abstract movement founded in Milan in 1948 by Gillo Dorfles, Munari, Soldati and Monnet. The adjective "concrete," coined in 1930 by Van Doesburg, aimed to reaffirm that abstract artists do not imitate the reality that they see, but rather make a form they invent concrete.
Within the MAC movement and even more so in subsequent decades when he approached the informal and then once again took up geometry, Chevrier cultivated an idea of movement.
"His compositions love to evolve with wonderful dynamic diagonal lines, and, in the '80s in particular, they evoke rotating spirals or cylinders, suggesting a moving, mysterious tension," explains Elena Pontiggia.
Thus Chevrier takes up aspects of futurism, as well as Apollinaire's allons plus vite ("let's go faster!") which was a mix of a dream, a desire and an order.
The movement that the Livorno native – but Milanese by adoption – painted was not related to machines. It is a tension expressed by signs alone, by their simple twisting and rotating.
Chevrier recalls that the first movement is that of the soul and that "motion" also has to do with "emotion." In his paintings, dynamism, a symptom of life, takes on a fleeting dimension. Like something that, fleeing, escapes from us.
Ferdinando Chevrier (Livorno 1920-2005) made his debut in 1948. After his first figurative attempts, he dedicated his work to geometric abstraction. In 1950 he joined MAC and had a personal exhibit presented by Dorfles, along with collective group exhibits. Around 1956 he approached the informal, but starting in the '70s he returned to geometry with strong dynamic aspects. In 1974 he moved to Milan, where he would live for thirty years. He passed away in 2005 in Livorno.
The exhibit will be open until 13 January 2017, Mondays through Saturdays, 9:00am-12:00pm.