Michelangelo Pistoletto

Private Collection, Turin

Galleria Tucci Russo, Torre Pellice

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in the late 1990s.

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are two small circular dents in the top left centre and the top left corner tip is slightly bent. Close inspection reveals two small semi-circular losses to the stainless steel, one to the bottom left corner and one to the bottom right corner. There are hairline scratches in places throughout, most notable a diagonal scratch to the upper centre approximately 10 centimetres long and small clusters of scratches along the top and right hand edges towards the top right corner. Further inspection reveals a few small media accretions towards the bottom edge, approximately 10 centimetres from the bottom right corner.
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Forming part of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s most recognisable and celebrated corpus of Mirror Paintings, Daniela Gialla is a consummate example of the artist’s radical and eloquent use of the reflective surface. Standing with her back to us, her face only partly visible, allowing but a short and elusive glimpse at her facial features, the woman in the present work emanates a striking yet enigmatic air. The figure’s pose, her hands placed against the back of a chair, seems at once inviting yet guarded. As the viewer follows her gaze to the left, they are confronted with their own reflection mirrored on an imposing surface of polished steel. It is in this collision of two spectral worlds that Pistoletto locates a complex reciprocal dialogue between the viewer and the intermediary figure in the painting.

Celebrated as one of the most important Italian avant-garde artists of the post-war era, Pistoletto created Daniela Gialla at a crucial point in his ascending career. In June of 1967, the artist participated in what is generally recognised as the very first Arte Povera exhibition, Fuoco, immagine, acqua, terra at the L’Attico gallery in Rome. Indeed, the quotidian use of everyday material postulated by the Arte Povera artists is reflected in Pistoletto’s appropriation of the mirrored surface. While toying with the dominant Pop aesthetic of the time, Pistoletto was also highly influenced by artists such as Lucio Fontana, Agostino Bonalumi and Enrico Castellani. The postulate of Fontana’s Spatialismo to refute the traditional parameters of the two-dimensional painting and create a space in which the viewer actively explores the possibilities of art is echoed in Pistoletto’s phantasmagorical Mirror Paintings. Extending the canvas by introducing a reflective surface, he examines and unravels the distortive illusionism of perspective. Masterfully appropriating the language of trompe-l’oeil to entirely subvert it, the present work positions itself within a grand artistic tradition of mirrors such as Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère or the Rokeby Venus by Velázquez. Naturally in flux through the constantly changing angle of the viewer, the Mirror Paintings gain a theatrical dramaturgy that infuses the work with rich performative aspects.

This interactive aspect of the Mirror Paintings echoes Pistoletto’s experiences of the time. In March of 1967, the artist met The Living Theatre, an experimental theatre company founded by Judith Malina, Julian Beck, and Erwin Piscator in New York in 1947. Their cooperative and collective ideology based on the philosophy of the French poet Antonin Artaud resonated with Pistoletto’s own concept of incorporating the viewer into his artistic spectacle. After seeing one of the group’s performances, he invited the members of the theatre to join him in his studio. This inspired his subsequent Open Studio and his Manifesto of Collaboration.

It is in this spirit of collective actions that the Mirror Paintings are firmly embedded. In their ability to literally mirror the dynamism and mutability of life, these pivotal works redefined the static perception of painting and challenged the deliberate involvement of the spectator. Making the viewer an integral part of the composition, Daniela Gialla is a powerful reflection on the inclusion of art into everyday life and evokes a constantly evolving literal and lyrical reflection of the self.