Passione per l´arte / Passion for Art

Along with Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, and Mimmo Paladino, Sandro Chia is one of the main representatives of the Italian transavanguardia, which developed in the second half of the seventies and rediscovered classical themes in a figurative style.

The figurative representational works reflect tradition and history in a subjective and expressive way. The artist, who works as a painter and sculptor, draws from an eclectic pool and likes to reference earlier art epochs and trends in his work, such as Italian mannerism, cubism, futurism, and fauvism.

He prefers subjects like Cyclopes, centaurs, and saints. The oversized figure Passione per lárte / Passion for Art also depicts a male figure using mannerist-style exaggeration. The figure, dressed in only a loincloth, crouches on a rock mass. Both hands are placed on his head in a gesture that is simultaneously protective and expressive. The upper body is twisted forward, so that his muscular chest is visible and one of his elbows points upward, while the other rests on his knee.

The unnatural mannerist posture seems to reproduce a moment of extreme rapture, which is enhanced by the expression on his face. His pupils are depicted as spirals; the lips are twisted into a half unconscious smile. A Passion for Art seems to have brought the man to his knees in a hypnotic-intoxicated state of excitement.