Sign, matter and existential tension
Training and early years
Emilio Scanavino was born in Genoa in 1922. He studied in his home city and began exhibiting as early as the late 1930s. After the war, he deepened his research through stays in Paris and London, coming into contact with the international avant-garde.
In 1951 he stayed in London, where he met Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland and Roberto Matta. Subsequently, he worked in Albisola, coming into contact with Lucio Fontana, Giuseppe Dova and several members of the COBRA group.
From Expressionism to Informale
His early works are characterised by an Expressionist component, but in the 1950s his language moved towards an increasingly personal style of Informale painting.
The sign progressively became the primary tool of his research: it is not a purely automatic gesture, but a form charged with tension and symbolic meanings.
The knot and the tangle
The most recognisable motif in Scanavino’s painting consists of intertwined signs, knots and tangles that develop across the surface. The forms seem to arise from a process of continuous superimposition and transformation.
This structure takes on a strong symbolic value, evoking tensions and conflicts without turning into a figurative narrative.
Matter and structure
Over the years, the sign was placed within increasingly defined structures and grids that organise the surface. The pictorial matter and the contrast between dense areas and open spaces reinforce the dramatic character of the composition.
Scanavino thus maintains a balance between gesture and construction, between informal freedom and structural order.
Exhibition history and recognition
Throughout his career, he exhibited in Italy and abroad, participating in major international exhibitions. He featured at the Venice Biennale in 1960 and 1966 with a solo room, and in 1971 he was invited to the São Paulo Biennial.
His works are now held in major public collections, including those of the modern art museums of Turin and Milan.
Critical interpretation
Scanavino’s painting is distinguished by a highly personal language, in which the sign becomes structure and symbol. The knot and the tangle do not represent recognisable objects, but translate an inner tension and a reflection on the human condition.
His research constitutes one of the most significant contributions to Italian Informale, capable of transforming the gesture into an organised form and uniting expressive intensity with the construction of the surface.