Exhibition
RIFLESSIONI NOTTURNE

5 May – 1 October 2023
Venice, Fortuny Museum

Curated by Chiara Squarcina

The exhibition presents ten previously unseen paintings by Giovanni Soccol, which together create a space defined by a sustained rhythm that brings unity to the whole. The theme of this cycle of paintings is inspired by the vision of Venetian architecture rising from the water and dissolving in its own reflection.

Soccol, in fact, wanted to portray the fascination of an apparition that can vanish, as though more a dream than reality. Determining the whole is an analysis of the geometric relationships that bind the compositional elements into a view that is not in perspective but projected orthogonally onto the canvas so as not to alter the geometry of the forms. A nocturnal light links and unites the elements, imbuing the architecture with a metaphysical atmosphere that in recent decades reappears as a constant thread in the work of this Venetian artist.

The subject of this series of paintings are ten architectural symbols overlooking the Grand Canal, from the Dogana da Mar to the church of San Simeone, each of which has aroused a particular interest in Soccal and resulted in a formal and spiritual dialogue. The canvases, in 200 x150 cm frames, are all mixed media works, namely a lean tempera base, a water-in-oil emulsion corpus and oil-resin glazes, all prepared in the artist’s studio on the basis of research into historically traditional methods.