Quatro Stagioni Study #15
Artist
Tino Zago
(Italian-American, born 1937)
Date1990
MediumPastel
Dimensions29 × 43 1/4 in. (73.7 × 109.9 cm)
ClassificationsDrawing
Object numberUAC2936
Description#15 sees the return of the delineation of the picture into three segments again. But in this case, the subject matter has changed dramatically. The first panel is a very clearly representative depiction of the night sky and the constellations that can be found there. Almost all of the abstraction that could be found in the other scenes has fully left, but returns in the second panel. This middle frame seemingly moves away from the clear water-like scene to something a little more ambiguous. Perhaps it is still water, though with more of an emphasis on plant life in the foreground and a smaller enclosure like a pond or segment of some swamp-like landscape. Finally, and most consistently, is the return of the water-logged pilings, here rendered in pastel blues and greens.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
