Stitched Horizons
- Technique
- Mixed media on stretched canvas: acrylic and oil layers with fine aggregate combed into striations, collage in horizontal bands, and blue-grey glazes.
- Dimensions
- 40 × 123 cm
- Year
- 2009
A yellow field, striated and mineral, is structured by two cool incisions in relief. Light becomes tactile in the grain and in the minimal shadow of each edge.
About the work
In the narrow format, the composition asserts itself as a vertical cloth of sustained yellow, held within a white frame that acts as a margin of silence. Two blue-grey horizontal bands interrupt the continuity and set a measure: they do not so much divide as suspend, turning the upward passage into a sequence of pauses.
The central body is built through a script of horizontal striations that runs the full height. Between grooves, the yellow takes on a skin-like condition: the material, laden with fine aggregate, holds the pigment and renders it porous. Upon this weave, small greyish accents are laid down, almost stitches, grouping into irregular rows and making the plane vibrate between the ochre, the calcareous and the solar.
The two relief strips introduce a different density. Their interior, more compact, reveals an organic network of cavities and cells where the blue mixes with traces of yellow, as if emerging from earlier layers. Along the profile, the step of the collage becomes legible: the finest shadow beneath the projection activates the surface and confirms the stratified construction, characteristic of Pagliari’s late phase.
