Lotto di tre opere 

Curator: Today we’re considering Rodolfo Arico's "Lotto di tre opere," from 1992, part of his abstract geometric period. I’m interested in the artist’s choices in working with a minimalist, architectural form here, set against a clean, white ground. Editor: Well, right off the bat, this feels like a study of perspective, a simplified cityscape rendered in somber blues broken by stark yellow lines. There's a tension between the planned, precise shapes and the underlying freehand marks. Curator: I agree; it’s fascinating how the sketch lines show the making, they display the labor that usually remains hidden, right? You almost see the artist constructing, deconstructing, the plane’s surfaces and the picture’s spatial dimensions. It highlights his process, almost as an index of creative practice, as a study on industrial formalism and architectural construction. Editor: Absolutely. It seems to toy with sacred geometry in this reductive form, even while remaining deeply rooted in materiality; what symbolism can we pull from the lines, planes, and edges in connection with modernity and a futuristic ideal? The solid form looms, like the past influencing the future. The ultramarine perhaps evoking an ideal lost, against the sharp lines that disrupt the smooth blue expanses as progress marching inexorably forward? Curator: Your suggestion unlocks an alternative, which moves away from formalism. In any event, its visual impact seems driven by tension between what we see as industrial planes, rendered with careful geometry, set against clear marks of hand. This makes for compelling considerations of the relationship of industrial processes of our social construction with those elements drawn of subjective artistry. Editor: I suppose one could consider the tension in his reductive symbolism. One gets a powerful, even if subdued sense, one wonders whether it reflects a vision or premonition? Still the eye goes between form and depth… what impact is Rodolfo Arico creating beyond pure geometries and spatial planes? Curator: I believe the brilliance here rests with its quiet assertion. There’s no definitive argument being made, but it beckons the mind towards that space between rigid formalist approach of Modernity with a more emotional, lived reality. Editor: It definitely invites contemplation beyond its simple composition. What enduring themes lie within even what could otherwise remain sterile modernism, yes.