Initiatory work of the path into Spatial Neoconstructivism whose starting year we have decreed precisely 1965. Not a random year. Year in which the artist married his wife and year in which the Second Vatican Council closed, which even today in the faithful nor even the Church itself, can say was or was not a positive or negative event because of the extent of the consequences.
In moments of difficulty or uncertainty in the Church’s journey God has always turned to the laity, in 1965 he may have turned to Volturno Morani, who in that season was living his springtime of love, which gave propulsive force to his artistic parabola that thus saw the light with this his first work. TIME and SPACE M. A work dedicated precisely to his wife Marina.
The early Works of Spatial Neo-Constructivism are characterized by blue monochrome, shaded in several gradations. This depended on the contrast in which the artist stood in relation to the multicolored buckets that were taking over with American informal art at that time, to which Volturno Morani wanted to oppose precisely monochrome and geometries, inspired by Eastern European cultures that were particularly censored at the time, as politically incorrect, coming from the FORMER USSR, thus reinforcing the artist’s anti-system connotation.
In the work two radiations, two persons, “you are the light in the world” (Matt. 5:14) who start from two different dimensions and unravel through straight lines, because straight is the way of the Lord, and come to numerous possible meeting points, corner intersections between their starting dimensions. However, only at a meeting point does something happen, something new is born. A new, precious force, almost reminiscent of a diamond, colored in grayscale. Gray, a color used very rarely, but all the times identified as from energies arising from men and women in prayer, and what prayer is there stronger than the love of man and a woman who trying to live uprightly met and loved each other?
Notice how we never see the vertices from which the radiation starts or meets or how the energy field of love is not delimited, this to mark the concept of infinity of eternity. How infinite were the possible intersections between these two people, a true ode to free will and the possibility of choice that is always in human hands. But only one in a given time, in a given space generated the story of Volturno and Marina and the birth of Spatial Neo-constructivism, and only that apex of the diamond can we see clearly in the work. A single point/moment in the infinite multidimensionality arising from these two energies that reminds us how unique and unrepeatable our lives are.
Diamond formed by 10 rays each coming from its own dimension (person), aimed at consecrating, seeking to guard that love in light of the 10 commandments.
A Work donated by the artist to his Wife, in the year of their marriage, an abstract work, but with a charge of concreteness highlighted by this diamond-like figure, typical of the rubies that are given on wedding occasions, as if to say, “love is cultivated in spirit and is lived in concrete things.” As the touch of concreteness was intended to be added to the title of the work M. Time and Space in the meeting place M. With the usual Trinitarian M that distinguishes Volturno Morani’s work. M of Morani (identity), M of Marina (love), M of Misericordia (faith).
Flavio Morani
TEMPO E SPAZIO M – 50×70 – 1965 – tempera on treated cardboard
