
Untitled
This untitled work on paper by Osvaldo Licini presents a compact yet energetically charged composition built from overlapping rectangular forms rendered in graphite, pink pastel, and violet ink. A bold black border frames the central field, its heavily scribbled marks conveying a sense of contained urgency. Within this boundary, a grid drawn in thin ink lines structures the pictorial space, while passages of vivid pink define an angular, recurving shape that reads simultaneously as border, frame, and autonomous geometric form. A second, darker rectangle occupies the right portion of the composition, filled with dense hatching that creates a zone of visual weight and shadow. Small violet marks punctuate the gridded interior, adding a further chromatic layer and a quality of restless notation. Licini produced works on paper throughout his career as both independent investigations and as a means of working through ideas that would find their way into larger compositions. This sheet reflects his sustained engagement with geometric abstraction filtered through an intensely personal and intuitive touch. Unlike the cool rationalism associated with many European abstractionists of his generation, Licini consistently introduced an almost expressionistic quality into his mark-making, allowing the hand to remain visible and the process to register on the surface. The grid here is not a neutral armature but a trembling, hand-drawn field that carries its own temperature, and the pink passages feel arrived at rather than planned, giving the work an improvisational warmth despite its structural clarity. At twenty by thirty centimeters, the work rewards close physical attention. Its modest scale concentrates the viewer's eye on the specific character of each mark, the variation in pressure across the pastel strokes, the slight irregularities of the inked grid, and the tonal shifts within the shadowed rectangle at right. Works on paper of this kind occupy a distinctive place in Licini's practice and in the broader history of Italian abstraction, offering an unmediated view into the artist's formal thinking at close range. For collectors focused on mid-century European works on paper, this sheet represents a compelling example of geometric sensibility brought alive through the particular intimacy of drawing.
- Medium
- Pastels and ink on paper
🔨 Auction Lot
Martini Studio d'Arte: Modern And Contemporary Art
June 10, 2026
Estimate: €5,000 to €7,000
Lot 153
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