Enzo Cucchi

ENZO CUCCHI (Morro d'Alba, Ancona, 1949).
Untitled, 1989.
Pencil, India ink and collage on paper.
Signed and dated on the back.
Work published in "Enzo Cucchi, drawings", Joan Prats Gallery, Barcelona.
Measurements: 16,6 x 23,6 cm; 43 x 50 cm (frame).

This drawing, dated 1989, presents an undefined creature, almost larval, growing in front of a black sun that dominates the upper plane of the composition. Made in pencil, ink and collage, the work concentrates several of Enzo Cucchi's characteristic elements: the tension between the figurative and the symbolic, the expressive use of the stroke, and a narrative that is insinuated rather than explained. The black sun, a symbol charged with ambiguity, which alludes to both the apocalyptic and the occult, intensifies the visionary atmosphere of the whole. The fragmentary physicality refers to the body, the territory and the subconscious, recurring themes in the artist's work. This drawing falls within the aesthetic framework of the Italian Transavanguardia, a movement to which Cucchi belonged along with Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Nicola De Maria and Mimmo Paladino. In opposition to the conceptual rationalism dominant in previous decades, the Transavanguardia proposed a return to painting, emotionality and personal mythology. Cucchi, in particular, stood out for the poetic and visionary intensity of his imagery, where arcane symbols, primitive forms and an instinctive use of drawing as a means of revelation coexist.

Enzo Cucchi is a painter and designer associated with the Italian trans-avant-garde movement, which reached its peak during the 1980s and is considered a trend within the worldwide Neo-Expressionism. It consists of a return to painting after previous periods dominated by minimalism and conceptual art. He was a key member along with his fellow countrymen Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola De Maria, Sandro Chia and Horacio Cordero. He had his first exhibition at the Luigi de Ambrogi gallery in Milan in 1977 and since the 1980s he has worked with the Bruno Bischofberger gallery in Switzerland and in Cologne with the Paul Maenz gallery. He held exhibitions at the Kunsthaus in Zurich and the following year at the Stedeljik Museum in Amsterdam. In 1984 he had his first solo exhibition in Boston. He has worked as a costume and set designer for plays (dramas by Heinrich von Kleist), including operas (by Gioacchino Rossini).