Montagna, Appennino 1984

Editor: So, this is Ettore Spalletti's "Montagna, Appennino," created in 1984, using acrylic paint and it looks like it was made en plein-air. I'm struck by how simplified and almost geometric the mountain range is. It feels very subdued, very quiet. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, immediately, I think about the material origins. This acrylic, manufactured and distributed, becoming a stand-in for the natural form. What does it mean to represent something 'en plein-air' with a thoroughly industrialized medium? Are we romanticizing the mountain, or critiquing our distance from it? Editor: That's interesting. I was focused on the visual impact, but the material choice really changes how we read the image. So, the very substance challenges this ideal of landscape painting? Curator: Precisely. And think about the act of painting itself, the labor involved. Spalletti isn’t recreating a detailed likeness; he's filtering the experience through the lens of industrial production and his own hand. It’s a simplified landscape, yes, but that simplification raises questions about access, about the consumption of nature as image. What do you make of the subtle color variations? Editor: They add a certain depth despite the abstraction. It keeps it from being completely flat and manufactured looking, adding some visual interest for the viewer, perhaps like subtle signs of human work involved in extraction. Curator: Yes, and that labor is then presented to us as art, inviting a consumer relationship with a representation of the very landscape potentially impacted by the acrylic production. Editor: I never thought about it that way! I was caught up in the visual simplicity, but now I see how the material and its context are just as important as the composition. Curator: Absolutely. Examining the process and material reveals the hidden social layers within even the simplest artwork.