Lot 36 D

“The development of Calderara’s oeuvre is not characterised by an increasing abstraction of the objective world, the landscapes, and portraits, in other words by the reduction of the diversity of forms in the picture; in point of fact, even in the early pictures one observes how he strives to achieve the atmospheric and characteristic effect of the subject matter by qualitative balancing and quantitative measurement of the relationships of form and colour in the picture plane. […] In 1972, the artist formulates the guiding principle underlying every question regarding the meaning of the paintings, ‘Geometric order is the measure that consolidates the interrelation between image and space.’
Hence, the reality ratio of this art form cannot be defined by its depiction, but by the elaboration of the structures that are enclosed within the dimensions and volume and which establish comparability between the image and the reality in which we find ourselves,“ Friedrich W. Heckmanns states, (cited in: exhib.cat. Antonio Calderara, 1903-1978, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen u. Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf/Wilhelm-Hack-Museum Ludwigshafen 1981/1982, p.9).
This meditative work, dedicated to the utmost in reduction, was in the possession of Friedrich W. Heckmanns, former curator of the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, friend and neighbour of Calderara. It eludes all motivic references and is a painting of pure light – according to Calderara’s own formulated objective to liberate colour from its material nature under the influence of light.