Piero Pizzi Cannella — Fiori secchi (1996)

Piero Pizzi Cannella is one of the defining figures of contemporary Italian painting and a founding protagonist of the Scuola di San Lorenzo, the Rome group that emerged in the early 1980s and returned figuration, memory and objecthood to the centre of Italian art after the conceptual decades.

Fiori secchi (1996) belongs to one of the most celebrated phases of his production. The still life is not described but distilled: dried flowers condense into a dark, vertical silhouette at the centre of the canvas, a poetic wound in a pictorial space of neutral, chalky tones where matter converses with surface in a delicate balance of gesture, colour and light.

The oil technique is handled here with an almost aerial, stratified sensitivity, and the monumental vertical format amplifies the contemplative force of the image. The work was acquired directly from the artist, a provenance that gives the painting uninterrupted traceability and an impeccable pedigree.

His work is held in public collections including the MAXXI and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, and has been presented in international exhibitions including the Venice Biennale.