GIUSEPPE PENONE

Shaped by a conceptual movement in the 1960s and 1970s that sought to ground art in everyday materials,Penone has worked in a distinctive realm within the tradition of Arte Povera with a unique body of work thatprioritizes process, time, phenomena, the body and nature as sculptural materials, offering a continuousreinterpretation of these forms and their meaning.

On view will be a selection of key photographic works, sculptures, and recent works on canvas which spanthe years 1970-2023, highlighting a conceptual theme that has propelled his practice and continues toresonate today. Central to this is the notion of touch and its importance to the artist: ‘to touch, understanda form, an object is like covering it with prints. A trace formed by the images that I have on my hands,’ wrotePenone in 1969. Beyond the conventions of sight, the imprint for Penone is touch transformed into afossilized gesture that records and shapes our reality and our perceptions. An index of the individual it issimultaneously unique and ‘the most democratic image that can be conveyed — an image that leads humanbeings back to matter, to nature.’ Touch and breath, forms which belong to everyone, transmute the tactileinto the visual, underlying Penone’s notion of living sculpture.

A point of departure in this exhibition is an early sculpture from 1979-82 titled Cocci (Shards), which tracesthe imprint of the artist’s cupped hands holding a fragmented vessel, preserved through poured plaster. Thesesolidified forms delineate both the residual shards of a vessel and the shape of the artist cupping his handsaround it, reminiscent of the primordial gesture of trying to keep hold of what is fluid.

Inspired by the gestures and actions in Cocci, two decades later in 2004-05, Penone undertook a similarprocess: creating larger plaster shapes tracing the imprint of the hand, substituting children’s wooden blocksfor vessel fragments, and casting the blocks into steel. With the plaster shapes in bronze, and the woodenblocks in steel, Geometria nelle mani (Geometry in the Hands), 2005, was created. A series of five sculptureson view here, they contain a memory of Cocci. Their seemingly natural bronze surfaces resemble humanimprints and are juxtaposed with stainless steel geometries, creating a dialectic of forms. Within each of thesculptures lies a hidden complexity: a small void of the same shape as the wooden block through which we’reable to glimpse the artist’s hand — the principle of creation at the heart of Penone’s practice.

In a group of early works from 1970-1973, Coincidenza di immagini (Images Coincidence) and Svolgere la propriapelle (To Unroll One’s Skin), photographs of a part of the body correlate to ink prints of their respective skinareas establishing a relationship between the visual representation and the perception of touch, and revealingthe richness of the image of the skin. These works suggest that the physical encounter with the universe ismore profound than the experience of it through sight.

Trattenere 6, 8, 12, 16 anni di crescita (To Retain 6,8,12,16 Years of Growth), 2004-2020, is a cast in bronze of a hand grasping the trunk of a young tree, retaining a hold upon it even as the tree continues to grow aroundit for six, eight, twelve, sixteen years. From his first works, Alpi Marittime in 1968, for Penone the tree retainsa memory of an action over time, giving life to the relationship between forms and the the imprint of the handwithin a sculpture.

Installed on the wall and suspended by a steel cable are the works from _Avvolgere la terra - il colore nelle mani_(To Enfold the Earth – the colour of the hands), 2014, each formed by enlarging a handful of clay bearingthe imprint of the artist’s hands, and revealing that imprint in terracotta and pigments of red, light pink,blue, and yellow.

In his most recent works, a series titled Impronte di Luce (Imprints of Light), 2023, Penone turns to painting,exploring gesture and imprint in an entirely new context. In each of these works gestures of the handsimprinted on paper with ink are enlarged and transported onto canvas to create colourful compositions. Thebrilliantly hued colours of the background of the canvases are derived from Le Corbusier’s ‘architecturalpolychromy,’ a chromatic palette of 63 colours formulated in 1931 and enriched in 1959. Each canvas has theproportions of a 183 x 183 cm perfect square, inspired by the ‘Modulor,’ Le Corbusier’s anthropometric systemof proportions and measurements based on the golden ratio.

Resembling both imprints of bodies and abstract shapes, the dancing forms that emerge on these canvasesappear anthropomorphic and vegetal. The inspiration for Impronte di Luce was an exhibition at the priory ofCouvent de la Tourette, France in 2022, in which Penone responded to the original skin of Le Corbusier’sbuilding with a series of frottage drawings tracing the grain of wood in the walls, again interpreting them inthe context of Corbusier’s architecture and color scheme. The rubbings of the building anticipate the currentworks on view, reimagining them in a related palette and new form as gestures of the body: ‘The imprintreveals the golden ratio that I have in my hands,’ says Penone.

Press release courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery