After graduating in 1934 from the Porta Romana Art Institute in Florence, where he would later teach, Renzo Grazzini was spellbound from a young age by Ottone Rosai’s oeuvre. The post-World War I period marked a radical change in his art: after an initial exploration of geometric-abstract art, he focused on a neorealist approach beginning in 1953. Close to scholars such as Vasco Pratolini, Elio Vittorini, and Romano Bilenchi, he turned to an all-personal figurative expressionism. During his artistic career, he participated in the VI, VII, and VIII Rome Quadriennale, and in the XXV and XXVI Venice Art Biennale. His works are displayed in private collections and public art galleries, including the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the Gallery of Modern Art of Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

– title: Pianura a San Giovanni Valdarno

– date: 1960

– medium: oil on canvas

– size: 93×123 cm

– description: Pianura a San Giovanni Valdarno was painted by Renzo Grazzini for his participation in the second edition of the Masaccio Awards (1960), winning second prize. It is a representation of the Valdarno plain through a pictorial language that favours quick brushstrokes and roughly outlined forms. Minimalism of forms and radical colours are the principal means exploited by the artist to play on a balance between objective reality and subjectivity. One of the points of strength of this composition is indeed the use of an extreme and all-personal palette of colours, which create and distinguish the various horizontal levels: flat sequences highlighted by the use of contrasting tones. The artist relied on overlapping paler hues – vaguely reminiscent of Expressionism – to create the construction of the space, in which he placed two loosely sketched houses. When observing the composition more closely, the gaze finds no space for rest or a vanishing point. Instead, it clashes against the rough brushstrokes that Grazzini relied on to offer a minimalist albeit complete vision of the Valdarno plain.