Francesco Lo Savio

Monograph
E
dited by Alex Sainsbury
With essays by Udo Kultermann, Achille Bonito Oliva, Stella Santacatterina and Jon Thompson

Paperback, 31 May 2001
ISBN: 0-9539772-1-8
96 pages, 263.5 x 210 mm
24 colour illustrations
Thread sewn with block printed Arches Expression Black cover
Printed on 170gsm Munken Lynx and 80gsm Munken Pure

Francesco Lo Savio died aged only twenty-eight in 1963. Because of this, and perhaps because his work is seen mostly in bad reproduction where it might seem dry and disengaged, he is little known outside his native Italy. Lo Savio worked on blueprint, and on canvas, and on sheet metal, but always he pared down the materiality of the work. Each surface hovers, and appears to meld into the surrounding space. Canvas and steel are translated into direct experience of space and light. In structure the work anticipates American Minimalism but in its effect - apprehension is apprehended - it prefigures the achievements of conceptual art.

In September and October 2001, Peer exhibited two important works which confirmed that Lo Savio's work deserves equal attention to that of his peers, Manzoni and Klein. In advance of that, on May 31 same year, and to coincide with the Arte Povera Exhibition at the Tate, we published the first English language monograph on Lo Savio. The book reproduces for the first time as fairly as possible to its effects, a large body of Lo Savio's work. It contains specially commissioned essays by Udo Kultermann, Achille Bonito Oliva, Stella Santacatterina and Jon Thompson, as well as writing by Lo Savio and by his friend and philosopher Emilio Villa. All texts are in English and Italian.

francesco lo savio

francesco lo savio
Black Metal, Uniform, Opaque, Articulation of Horizontal Surface
(Metallo Nero Opaco Uniforme, Articolazione di Superficie Orizzontale lastra metallica verniciata di nero), 1960
Sheet metal, varnished black
100 x 200 x 20 cm
Private collection, London

Extracts from the book:
Light and Space: Time and Matter by Jon Thompson
Lo Savio: Space - From Thought to Light by Stella Santacatterina
The Concept of Form by Achille Bonito Oliva
The Vision of Francesco Lo Savio by Udo Kultermann

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