Contrast of Sediments

Curatorial text

Like a wall made up of layers, the canvas is arranged in a sequence of horizontal strips that alternate ochre fields with three dark bands, dense, with a more compact texture. The rhythm is interrupted in the lower section by a broad whitish, speckled register, which cools the palette and restores to the whole a limestone clarity. A pale frame, barely suggested, contains the composition and reinforces its character as a facing.

The structure rests on folded vertical modules: regular flaps that project from the plane and generate fine indentations between one piece and the next. These joints act as breaths, small shadows that shift with the angle of view and turn the reading into a slow, measured sway. The lateral view confirms a restrained yet decisive relief, concentrated in the folds and in the thickness of the layers.

Matter dominates through its granulation: over the ochres appears a pale splatter, like dispersed lime, while in the dark bands the grit clumps into a rougher, heavier skin. The light does not reflect; it settles: it becomes caught in the grains and on the raised edges, making visible Pagliari’s constructive patience and his way of translating the Mediterranean landscape into stratum, touch and silence.