Published by IYC - The International Yacht Company in their HORIZONS Magazine - Exceptional Yachts. Extraordinary Experiences
Issue #11 Summer 2024 (Advertorial Page 181)

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Space Gallery Advertorial presenting one of Turi Simeti's magnificent artworks in this summer's edition of IYC's HORIZONS Magazine.

Pictured here, one of Turi Simeti's later works 7 Ovali Rossi, 2017. Acrylic on shaped canvas 100 x 120 cm (39.37 x 47.24 in)

About the artist Turi Simeti

Italian artist Turi Simeti (1929-2021) played an active role in the Zero art movement of 1960s and 1970s. He is considered a true pioneer of 20th and 21st Century Italian art.
 

Minimalist in conception, Simeti's work consists of dynamic patterns of ovals that dance across the monochromatic surfaces of shaped canvases. This focused combination of colour and shape speaks to his concern, emphasizing the physical presence of the artwork itself, rather than an expression of the artist's voice. Simeti's artwork has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Among the most interesting are the exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York or at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. His work is included in prominent collections, including the MAM in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bolzano, the Galleria Civica, Turin, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, the Museo del Novecento, Palazzo Reale, Milan in Italy, the Mittelrhein-Museum, Koblenz, the Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch and the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen, in Germany.

He was one of the 30 or so artists that Lucio Fontana – who broke new ground in the 1950s with his Concetti spaziali (spatial concepts) and turned the picture into a relief – presented in his studio in 1965 as a ‘zero avant-garde’. These artists turned away from traditional painting and conventional materials and conquered space and light with their art. 

The ‘oval’ shape characteristic of Simeti was created as soon as the early 1960s. From the first orderly relief pictures, initially in a geometric sequence, the basic module of the oval soon became independent and moved into the space of the above frame covered with canvas. The picture becomes a relief and enters into a relationship with the space. His monochrome works show minimalist and clear forms. The interplay of light and shadow on the surface, which can have very different characteristics depending on the intensity and angle of incidence of the light, develops a poetic effect and touches the viewer in a special way.