Description: CATEGORY: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ART - ABSTRACT AND EXPRESSIONIST ART OF THE 20TH CENTURY ARTIST: VALERIANO CIAI (ROME, 1928 - LARIANO, 2013) SUBJECT: CITY - ABSTRACT CITYSCAPE - AERIAL VIEW OF AN URBAN LANDSCAPE OIL PAINTING ON CANVASSIGNED LOWER RIGHT ‘CIAI’WORK DATABLE TO THE LATE 1970S/EARLY 1980SIT IS PRESENTED IN COEVAL SILVER-COLOURED WOODEN FRAMEEXCELLENT CONDITION OF THE PAINTING AND THE FRAMEMEASUREMENTS OF THE PAINTING: 17 3/4 INCH (45 CM) WIDTH X 14 INCH (35 CM) HEIGHTMEASURES OF THE FRAME: 25 1/4 INCH (CM 64) WIDTH X 21 1/2 INCH (CM 54) HEIGHT The painting entitled City, by Valeriano Ciai, executed in oil on canvas, is an abstract work full of visual suggestions and emotional nuances. Valeriano Ciai seems to adopt an abstract approach, made up of short, broken and overlapping brushstrokes that create a dense and complex texture, intersecting to form a grid, reminiscent of the contours and geometries of a city. The use of blurred colours and the choice not to delineate precise shapes suggests a fragmented and constantly evolving image. Ciai does not focus on particular architectural details, but rather on the effects that light and shadow produce in the urban space. The concrete details of the city are blurred, transfigured into a mosaic of shapes and colours. This technique of overlapping, which plays with the concept of transparency and layering, gives the work a particular depth, inviting the observer to lose himself in an abstract vision of the city. The decision not to depict recognisable buildings or people may allude to the impersonal and chaotic nature of modern metropolises, where individual details are lost in the whole.Ciai's style in this work can be described as expressionist-abstract, with an influence of tonalism. The brushstrokes are free, as if to convey the energy of the city, and use a range of colours from pale pink to earthy brown, with slight hints of purple and blue. This technique, where the lines and colours do not speak of precise shapes but create a kind of visual ‘texture’, reflects a sense of lyrical abstraction. The grid created by the brushstrokes recalls the idea of streets and buildings, but in such a subtle way as to leave room for personal interpretation by the observer. Ciai was influenced by Abstract Expressionism, an art movement that originated in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s and was characterised by the use of free and gestural painting techniques to express intense emotions. Tonalism, with its use of modulated tones to create a sense of atmosphere and depth, also seems to have influenced Ciai's work. However, unlike the American abstract expressionists, who often aimed to express the artist's interiority, Ciai uses abstraction to reflect external reality, particularly the complexity and intensity of urban life. His vision is that of a critical observer, who analyses the city not as a simple agglomeration of buildings, but as a metaphor for contemporary society, its contradictions and paradoxes. ‘Valeriano Ciai's ‘City’ can be interpreted as a reflection on the urban experience. The city is represented not so much in its physicality, but as a set of sensations and perceptions. The lack of precise details suggests that Ciai does not intend to show a specific place, but rather to evoke the sense of disorientation and complexity that characterises city life. The work lends itself to many interpretations: the way the colours blend and overlap can be seen as a metaphor for the fusion of people, histories and cultures that come together in big cities, creating a single social fabric. It could also allude to the sense of alienation and isolation in a hectic and impersonal urban environment. This depiction of the city as a ‘non-place’, devoid of distinctive elements, suggests that Ciai may have intended to explore the city not so much as a physical entity, but as a state of mind. It is an ‘inner city’ that reflects the anxieties, dreams and frustrations of the modern human being, poised between a desire to belong and an inevitable sense of isolation. Ciai, therefore, shows us an intangible city, a city that exists only in the mind of the beholder and that somehow reflects a more universal dimension of living. Ciai's city, in fact, has no borders or precise identity: it is a city that could belong to anyone and no one, a sort of universal symbol of urban existence. The city becomes a field of psychological experimentation, where the artist explores not so much the physical places, but the feelings they evoke. Despite the apparent physical proximity of individuals in a city, large metropolises are often places of alienation, where people coexist without really knowing each other. Ciai reflects this paradox through an indistinct and blurred representation of buildings and streets, as if to symbolise the loss of identity and clarity. In this work, the city becomes a collective organism, a fusion of elements that, while maintaining their own specificity, dissolve into the whole. But there is always an ambivalence in his pictorial narrative: Ciai also seems to want to suggest that, just as the brushstrokes merge into one another, the experiences and lives of people are also indistinguishably intertwined, forming a network of invisible connections. The city, then, is not just a physical place, but a living, changing entity, a symbolic representation of social dynamics and human relationships. The neutral tones, dominated by pink and brown, create a visual effect similar to a twilight that envelops the city in a soft, diffuse, almost ethereal light. This colour choice could be a reminder of the city's solitude at dusk, a time of day when natural light fades, and the city is filled with a suspended, uncertain atmosphere. In this sense, the use of colours becomes a central narrative element, conveying to the audience a feeling of calm, but also of incompleteness and indefiniteness. Valeriano Ciai (1928 - 2013) was an Italian painter known for his works that explore abstraction and expressionism, the relationship between space and colour, and themes related to nature, the city and the human being. Born in Rome in 1928 and active mainly in the second half of the 20th century, Ciai went through different artistic phases, experimenting with different techniques and styles. His production is characterised by a constant search for the visual and conceptual essence of the places represented, seeking to convey sensations rather than realistic representations.Valeriano Ciai developed his artistic career after World War II, at a time when Italian art was in full ferment. His influences include artists such as Giorgio Morandi and Alberto Burri, who, in different ways, explored abstraction and matter. Ciai exhibited his works in various galleries and museums in Italy and abroad, contributing a unique and profound voice to the Italian art scene. In his first phase, Valeriano Ciai was close to the styles of social realism. In the 1960s, he moved on to a phase of existential realism that gradually opened up to the telling of a painful human condition, the result of a sense of modern alienation. His work, the result of a continuous questioning of reality and art, arrives at a figuration based not on observation but on memory. It is based on the reiteration of a few, infinitely varied themes: nudes, desolate human figures, urban landscapes, airports, some views of Rome. In 2016, a major retrospective exhibition on the author was held at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere. SHIPPING AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE PAINTINGS FOR SALE: ALL THE PAINTINGS WE PRESENT FOR SALE ARE UNIQUE PIECES, ORIGINAL PAINTINGS, WHERE THEY ARE NOT LIMITED EDITION ART PRINTS (LITHOGRAPHS AND SILKSCREENS), CHOSEN WITH EXPERIENCE, PROFESSIONALISM AND PASSION. FOR SOME PAINTINGS AVAILABLE IN OUR CATALOG, WE HAVE CHOSEN TO POST SEVERAL LISTINGS OF THE SAME PAINTING ON DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL EBAY SITES. WE DO THIS TO OFFER OUR PAINTINGS TO A WIDER AUDIENCE OF INTERNATIONAL VISITORS. BY COMPLETING THE PURCHASE OF THE PAINTING ON ONE OF THESE PLATFORMS, ALL OTHER LISTINGS WILL BE DELETED AND THE PAINTING WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE FOR SALE. 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Price: 890 USD
Location: Napoli
End Time: 2024-12-03T13:26:58.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
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Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Artist: Valeriano Ciai (Italy, Rome 1928 - 2013)
Unit of Sale: Single Piece
Signed By: Valeriano Ciai (Italy, Rome 1928 - 2013)
Size: Medium
Signed: Yes
Period: Contemporary (1970 - 2020)
Material: Canvas
Item Length: 25 1/4 inch
Framing: Framed
Subject: Urban Landscape/City/Cityscape
Type: Painting
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Item Height: 21 1/2 inch
Theme: Architecture, Cities & Towns
Style: Abstract, Avant-garde, Contemporary Art, Expressionism, Tonalism, Urban Art
Features: One of a Kind (OOAK)
Production Technique: Oil Painting
Country/Region of Manufacture: Italy
Unit Quantity: 1
Handmade: Yes
Time Period Produced: 1970-1979