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Edmondo Bacci — Avvenimento #121
Edmondo Bacci

Avvenimento #121

Avvenimento #121 unfolds across a wide horizontal canvas as a storm of dark forms caught mid-motion, their turbulent energy suspended against a luminous, silvery ground. Bacci works in a register that is simultaneously geological and celestial, conjuring shapes that suggest both the scarred surface of a planet and the fleeting dynamics of weather systems viewed from altitude. The dominant mass of charcoal and near-black pigment sweeps from left to right with a kind of controlled urgency, while punctuations of saturated red, cobalt blue, and warm yellow resist absorption into the darkness, asserting themselves as moments of thermal or emotional intensity. The canvas texture is deliberately exposed throughout, lending the painted surface a granular, almost mineral quality that reinforces the sense of natural force operating at a scale beyond the human. Bacci, a Venetian painter associated with the postwar Italian avant-garde and closely linked to the Spazialismo movement championed by Lucio Fontana, consistently sought to visualize what he called avvenimenti, or events, phenomena understood not as fixed subjects but as processes unfolding in time. The title is therefore less a label than a methodology, pointing the viewer toward duration, toward the interval between cause and aftermath. In this work, the large dark forms read as trajectories rather than objects, their smeared and scraped edges registering velocity and transformation rather than stable mass. The pale ground, handled with washes of grey and cream that breathe around the central turbulence, functions as both atmosphere and silence, the space through which these events move. For collectors, Avvenimento #121 represents Bacci at the height of his mature practice, when his gestural language had achieved a confident balance between spontaneity and compositional authority. The work holds dialogue with Abstract Expressionism while remaining distinctly rooted in an Italian sensibility shaped by light, history, and a philosophical engagement with space. Its horizontal format, generous but intimate at 63.5 by 135 centimeters, allows the eye to travel across the composition as one might read a landscape or a score of music, discovering new tensions and resolutions with each pass. The painting has aged with exceptional stability, its surface retaining the vibrancy and textural complexity that distinguish Bacci's finest canvases from this period.

Medium
Oil on canvas

🔨 Auction Lot

Martini Studio d'Arte: Modern And Contemporary Art

June 10, 2026

Estimate: €10,000 to €15,000

Lot 90

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About this work

Edmondo Bacci, Avvenimento #121

Avvenimento #121 unfolds across a wide horizontal canvas as a storm of dark forms caught mid-motion, their turbulent energy suspended against a luminous, silvery ground. Bacci works in a register that is simultaneously geological and celestial, conjuring shapes that suggest both the scarred surface of a planet and the fleeting dynamics of weather systems viewed from altitude. The dominant mass of charcoal and near-black pigment sweeps from left to right with a kind of controlled urgency, while punctuations of saturated red, cobalt blue, and warm yellow resist absorption into the darkness, asserting themselves as moments of thermal or emotional intensity. The canvas texture is deliberately exposed throughout, lending the painted surface a granular, almost mineral quality that reinforces the sense of natural force operating at a scale beyond the human. Bacci, a Venetian painter associated with the postwar Italian avant-garde and closely linked to the Spazialismo movement championed by Lucio Fontana, consistently sought to visualize what he called avvenimenti, or events, phenomena understood not as fixed subjects but as processes unfolding in time. The title is therefore less a label than a methodology, pointing the viewer toward duration, toward the interval between cause and aftermath. In this work, the large dark forms read as trajectories rather than objects, their smeared and scraped edges registering velocity and transformation rather than stable mass. The pale ground, handled with washes of grey and cream that breathe around the central turbulence, functions as both atmosphere and silence, the space through which these events move. For collectors, Avvenimento #121 represents Bacci at the height of his mature practice, when his gestural language had achieved a confident balance between spontaneity and compositional authority. The work holds dialogue with Abstract Expressionism while remaining distinctly rooted in an Italian sensibility shaped by light, history, and a philosophical engagement with space. Its horizontal format, generous but intimate at 63.5 by 135 centimeters, allows the eye to travel across the composition as one might read a landscape or a score of music, discovering new tensions and resolutions with each pass. The painting has aged with exceptional stability, its surface retaining the vibrancy and textural complexity that distinguish Bacci's finest canvases from this period.

Medium
Oil on canvas
Seen at
Martini Studio d'Arte

Related themes

Materiality, Avant Garde, Motion And Energy, Dark Palette, Male Artist, Spazialismo, Celestial Landscape, Italian Artist, Oil On Canvas, European Modern, Process Art, Postwar Art, Cosmic Abstract, Expressionist, Black And Charcoal, Red Accent, Abstract, Large Scale, Gestural Abstract, Natural Forces, Horizontal Format, Texture And Surface