Virginio Ciminaghi (1911-2001) - Sculpture, Senza titolo - 43 cm -

Ciminaghi’s work always expresses, in both sacred and secular themes, a restlessness for arcane spirituality—that is, an indefinable condition of life, indeed of existence, which, unsatisfied with its earthly weight, naturally aspires to detach itself, to refine itself, to take flight. This restlessness conditions the almost constant presence of the human figure as model and pretext for the artist’s work, and obviously it manifests with greater fidelity the form molded to the inspiring idea where the subject moves within the circle of the sacred or near it, as is the case in the refined bas-reliefs of the “Sacred Scenes,” which, in their gentle luminous motion, suggest ineffable situations of exhausted formal grace. The delicacy, almost a bewitching and trembling attitude of respect with which Ciminaghi touches the human figure, is evident in the drawings, in their delicate lines, in their light shading. It does not fail when the fingers press on the paper of the standing “figurines,” the almost always isolated “nudini.” Then the encounter between the pressure of the fingers—strong enough to modify the wave of the material—and the instinctive reserve of the artist produces a series of modulations, a counterpoint of shadows and softly sliding lights, sometimes even in dissonances, almost of jolts, which together consolidate, if one may say so, that feeling of fragility and human resilience that seems to be the ethical gift of our sculptor.

Estimate:$447.72

View all items fromCatawikiorArts & Graphics