Cortesi Gallery presents a new exhibition dedicated to colour, retracing different historical moments and highlighting the importance of colour, which has been and still represents a fundamental element for the art world through various techniques and uses.

Vibrazione del Colore (Colour Vibration) presents a path that unravels between the characteristic chessboard paintings of Victor Vasarely, crossing the dense textures of the master of the post-war abstraction Piero Dorazio up to the monumental Chromatische Konstellation of the German artist Heinz Mack, whose paintings are made of pure colours free from any natural or descriptive element. The exhibition then moves to contemporary art by displaying works by the artist Kerstin Brätsch with her strong gestures and research on alternative materials that intertwine with the new series of works by Maurizio Donzelli Reds, whose superimposed signs create great movement and depth. The exhibition also presents another work by Donzelli, whose artistic research has always been interested in the study of reflective surfaces, producing Luxdrawing, a perfect union between the more pictorial and emotional part of the flat surface which, however, allows the viewer and the space surrounding, thanks to its reflective property, to become part of the work itself. Lastly, also linked to the theme of mirroring, a diptych by Jacob Kassay: two silver canvases presented as a reflective field interact with each other, with the surrounding space and the viewer. His works, made by electroplating the surface of the canvas, thus bringing the work closer to the primordial process of photography.

This blend of monochrome surfaces, textures, grids, and reflections – whose central element is colour – emphasise light, movement and vibration.

Victor Vasarely (1906, Hungary - 1997, Paris, France) is the Franco-Hungarian artist known as the pioneer of the Op Art movement.
Using geometric shapes and coloured graphics, he creates illusions of spatial depth, generating an almost hypnotic optical vibration on the canvas.

Piero Dorazio (1927 Rome, Italy - 2005 Perugia, Italy) defined his pictorical practice, characterised by the use of bright colours and strokes that generate vibrating textures, starting from the second half of the 1950s. This study led him to redefine painting techniques, giving light, colour, space and structure new meaning.

Heinz Mack (1931, Lollar, Germany) was one of the founders of the Zero Group in Germany in 1959. His artistic research has always been based on the investigation of light through black and white canvases and the use of innovative materials such as aluminium and plexiglass, then through his contemporary production in studying the light spectrum. This is how the monumental canvases Chromatische Konstellation (Chromatic Constellation) were born.

Kerstin Brätsch (1978 Hamburg, Germany) is known for her large-scale colour compositions, in which she uses oil paints and a range of other materials to explore the nature of painting in the digital age. The three- dimensionality and explosive painting create a strong sense of gesture in the work Upright Solarium (Murphy Bed) reenacted (Scheinwand) presented in the exhibition, evoking generations of painters preceding her.

Maurizio Donzelli (1958, Brescia, Italy) has pursued a broad line of research focusing on the image as a potential locus of concentration, migration, and alteration of our visual memory.
His works develop in distinct cycles, experiments with different materials and techniques, seeking to go ever deeper, to give the public – the fundamental co-author of Donzelli's works – the infinite potential of evocation and iconic references rooted in the dynamics of time and history, spinning into far-off geographies.

Jacob Kassay (b. 1984, New York) is an artist whose relationship between space and work represents a fundamental point of his career. The canvases interact with the architecture that surrounds them. The artist adds colour or, rather the movement that he manages to impress with pigment, imbuing these seemingly monochrome pieces with a physical power that evokes gestural painting.