Mario Nigro: Abstraction and Humanism in Postwar Italian Art

A retrospective at Fondazione Ragghianti in Lucca reunites Mario Nigro (1917-1992) with his admirer Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, who invited him to exhibit at the Strozzina in Florence in 1955. Nigro's work blends geometric abstraction with social and political commentary, reflecting the tensions of postwar Italy. Starting from neocubism in the late 1940s, he joined the Movimento Arte Concreta after a 1949 solo show at Galleria Salto in Milan. His 'Spazio Totale' cycle (early 1950s) used multiple vanishing points and expressionist backgrounds to symbolize human relations in industrial society, inspired by Bach's fugues. In the 1960s, his gridded paintings introduced fiery colors and broken patterns, referencing labor strikes and generational conflict. By the late 1960s, he turned to installation art and minimalist line paintings, with the 'Terremoto' cycle reflecting the 1980 Irpinia earthquake. His final 'dipinti satanici' (1989) responded to the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, using expressive color as resistance. Nigro's oeuvre is a continuous search for aesthetic structure as the intimate core of humanity, addressing social issues from class struggle to violence.