Quatro Stagioni Study #13
Artist
Tino Zago
(Italian-American, born 1937)
Date1990
MediumPastel
Dimensions29 × 43 1/4 in. (73.7 × 109.9 cm)
ClassificationsDrawing
Object numberUAC2892
DescriptionQuatro Stagioni Study #13 looks back to the older pieces in the series, returning to the look at the water’s surface in the cave-like perspective. The first of these being a darkened sunset scene with a sort of dark palette of reds and greens. The yellow circle near the bottom looks a lot like the reflection of the sun as it sets in the distance. The lines that cut through it implying the motion of the water. In the center, the white space of the earlier works has diminished significantly, replaced by pale and bright yellows. The chaotic hatching and shapes of the middle piece have grown as well to take up more prominent space. Unlike earlier pieces, however, the third small panel is not the green and yellow depiction of an underwater view, but rather a deep blue and green expanse that has been cut through by a black shape that has a sort of purple color coming off of it. The Quatro Stagioni Study series is a set of sketches that Tino Zago did in preparation for a more elaborate project of paintings that are all multi-paneled and, in some cases, have individual names beyond just the name of the set. However, the series of studies are all done with pastel on paper, with a wide variety of colors and patterns and marks. One thing that each piece of the series has in common is that they are divided into segments, usually delineated through the use of contrasts of color if not lines of black pastel outright. The series explores a kind of abstracted landscape through various different combinations of colors and rough figural markings, each seeming to evoke different seasons of the year even on the level of individual sketches
Tino Zago is an italian-american artist who works often in abstract works. He came to the United States in 1948 and went on to study painting at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he got his MFA in painting, as well as at Yale University. He has exhibited extensively in New York, and can be found in a long list of art collections. His work, especially later in his career, is influenced by the landscapes and atmospheres of Mushaboom, Nova Scotia and Venezia, Italy, where he travels every year.
Written by Alex Heath
