The Casa Zavala Museum in Cuenca hosts Casanova until September 1st with the exhibition entitled Conexión, curated by the art historian and collector Roberto Polo
“The option for abstraction, soon declining towards monochrome, highlights in Casanova that need for synthesis which in his work connects him – and will connect the observer – with the sublime, with a higher level of spirituality. A second level minimalism, which has already eliminated the existing terrain, and in the silence of ataraxia seeks the way to glimpse the absolute”. With these words Massimo Mattioli introduces the artist’s work in his critical text Arturo Casanovaon the occasion of his first solo exhibition in Spain, in the lively center of Cuenca.
And the Zavala House Museum to host the exhibition entitled Conexión from 13 June to 1 September, curated by the art historian and collector Roberto Polo. A patron and philanthropist, who has already entrusted an important nucleus of his extraordinary collection to the city of Castilla y Mancha, visible in the spaces of the Antonio Pérez Foundation. This is what promotes the Casanova exhibition, which presents around fifty works, paintings and some marble sculptures, representative of the artist’s last season. And it is symbolic that the exhibition is held in Cuenca, recognized as the capital of Spanish abstract art, canonized in the museum of the same name hosted by the famous “suspended houses”.
New energies
“The artist is no longer the creator of that alchemy that transforms elements into images or forms”, adds Mattioli regarding Casanova’s work. “He becomes the key element of a process to which he confers his meditations, his sufferings, his ambitions”. The “connection” to which the title refers is in fact a nod to the artist’s expressive modality, always looking for relationships that can arise new energies, be they formal, psychological or spiritual. An “abstract and very human” art, to take up a theorization by the great art critic and historian Margherita Sarfatti. That “it transposes material and transitory facts into the field of lasting and spiritual images“.
Works that “deepen his investigation into the two sources that characterize the most serious art: the aesthetic search for beauty and the spiritual search for enlightenment and epiphany”, as the late art historian and critic wrote Barbara Rose, great supporter of the Campanian artist. “Casanova’s dedication to the highest principles is even rarer and more precious, as is his devotion to craftsmanship and elegance. His intention to create an environment of peace and contemplation led him to redefine the exhibition space as a sanctuary; a place – different from the disco, the cocktail party or the fashion show – where the spirit can find peace and inspiration”.
