Gianfranco Zappettini's 'Golden Age' at Mazzoleni Torino

Mazzoleni gallery in Turin presents 'The Golden Age,' a solo exhibition by Gianfranco Zappettini (Genoa, 1939), co-founder of the Analytical Painting movement in the 1970s. The show spans works from the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and recent years, with gold as a central motif symbolizing the sun and God, depicted as a circle and a point. Zappettini's recent research engages Eastern traditions like Taoism, aiming for metaphysical perfection rather than religious reference. The exhibition traces continuity from the mid-1990s series 'Al fin che traspare,' where the petal represents the soul's solitary journey, to the 2018 series 'Il petalo d'oro,' where the soul elevates and completes itself in gold. The 'Lacrima divina' series (2021) uses common and industrial materials with alchemical rigor, where horizontal lines push toward matter and vertical lines toward spirit. Zappettini states: 'Art is not decoration nor just aesthetics. It is to be considered like religion and, as such, must have three things: morality, rite, and gift.' The artist describes his work as a 'spiritual path, a work of inner research,' a perpetual self-analysis: 'Until I create a masterpiece, I will continue to paint.'