{"id":900,"date":"2026-09-24T12:15:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.armandagoriarte.com\/artisti\/turi-simeti\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T12:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:00:22","slug":"turi-simeti","status":"publish","type":"artisti","link":"https:\/\/armandagoriarte.com\/en\/artists\/turi-simeti\/","title":{"rendered":"Turi Simeti"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Monochrome, relief and the oval shape<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Background and early years<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turi Simeti was born in Alcamo in 1929. After studying law in Palermo, he moved to Rome in 1958, coming into contact with the capital&#8217;s artistic circles and Alberto Burri, whose exploration of materials exerted a strong influence.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the following years, he spent time in London, Paris and Basel, engaging with the European avant-garde and the progressive reduction of traditional painting codes.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Towards the monochrome<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the beginning of the 1960s, Simeti progressively abandoned material Informel and developed a practice based on monochrome and relief. The surface of the canvas became a physical space in which form modifies perception.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1961, the oval appeared as a central element of his work and gradually became the distinctive shape of his entire production.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The oval and the surface<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Simeti&#8217;s canvases are characterised by monochromes in which ovals and reliefs produce variations of light and shadow. The shape can be repeated, isolated or organised in sequences, creating a tension between flat surface and depth.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The work does not represent an external subject: meaning arises from the direct experience of the surface and the perceptual modifications produced by light.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Milan and the avant-garde<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1965, Simeti moved to Milan, where he came into contact with Lucio Fontana and the artists associated with the Azimuth circle, including Enrico Castellani, Agostino Bonalumi and Dadamaino.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between 1966 and 1969, he stayed in New York several times, broadening his engagement with international research into the monochrome and the reduction of form.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exhibition history and recognition<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout his career, Simeti exhibited in Italy and abroad. In 2001, a retrospective exhibition was presented at the Civica Galleria d&#8217;Arte Moderna in Gallarate.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">International recognition grew in the 2000s. In 2017, the Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9 was published, while his works entered important museum collections, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Critical interpretation<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Simeti&#8217;s practice is founded on a radical economy of means: monochrome, relief and the oval transform the pictorial surface into a perceptual space.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His work belongs to the history of monochrome painting and Italian spatial research of the post-war period, yet it maintains an autonomous and meditative dimension. The oval becomes an elementary sign capable of generating rhythm, light and depth without resorting to representation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":901,"template":"","class_list":["post-900","artisti","type-artisti","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"meta_box":{"artista_rappresentato":"nonrappresentato","artista_testo_pulsante":"","artista_link_alla_biografia_o_materiale":"","artista_opere_titolo":"","artista_opere_di_successo":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/armandagoriarte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artisti\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/armandagoriarte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artisti"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/armandagoriarte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/artisti"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armandagoriarte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/armandagoriarte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}