Superamento terrestre 1932

Enrico Prampolini made this painting, 'Superamento terrestre', with oil on canvas. The canvas is a deep blue, against which forms seem to emerge. I can imagine the artist working intuitively, layering the paint, adding and subtracting until the image comes into being, like a slow, geological event. It’s like the artist has captured a dream. Look at the textures. The paint is smooth and blended in some areas and roughly textured in others, creating a tactile surface that invites you to reach out and touch it. I wonder what he was thinking, what he was dreaming. This makes me think of Boccioni, another Italian Futurist, with his interest in the dynamism of objects. What interests me is that this interest in objects is still happening today! Painting has always been this conversation across time, where one painter builds on the ideas of another, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.