Work: Untitled (number 8)

Description

“I like the modest joy, tinged with melancholy that sings in almost all of Roberto Papini’s works”, Franco Albonetti.

Untitled number 8 by Roberto Papini (Ancona, 1921- 2019) is rectangular in shape and was made sometime between 1990 and 2011.

This panel, 70cm high and 31.5cm wide, is a tactile picture from the “Rhythms of objects” series and is conserved at the Museo Omero.
Marilena Pasquali, curator of the exhibition ”Roberto Papini opere 1952 – 2011″ gave that name to the group of tactile panels that he created between 1990 and 2011.

The panel has the structure of a tactile picture with a black-painted wooden background and frame.
The panel can be divided into two distinct parts. The upper features the circular plastic dial from a kitchen scale, where you can read the numbers from 0 to 600 grams.
In the centre of the dial is a red circle, decorated with transverse lines that intersect forming rhombuses, and in its centre is a disc of pearly plastic. A net of wire mesh similar to crochet-work surrounds the circular composition and the effect is suggestive of a dream catcher.

The lower half is composed of rhythmical, regular and sustained sequences of nails, wire, shiny beads and small iron constructions.
The rectangles behind the ‘pearls’ (six in each of the three rows) are painted red, the symbolic colour of the beating heart that gives life to this work where there is, undeniably, a conscious search for rhythm, pulsations and regular heartbeats.

In this panel, your fingers glide pleasantly and curiously over the materials in the search for the music of the soul that can make us hear Papini through his works.

Papini received many awards during his long career, including the “Ginestra d’Oro del Conero”, an annual award reserved for Italian and foreign artists. In 2017, the city of Ancona recognized the value of his art by assigning him the Certificate of Civic Merit.