Circuito meccanico

62. Circuito meccanico (Mechanical Circuit), 1949, oil on hardboard, cm 60 x 80

This horizontal composition represents a key transition: it marks the beginning of Mechanical Symbolism, but retains profound traces of the preceding period, Reflexism.

The heart of the painting is occupied by a complex interlocking of gears and mechanical forms that seem to float in a suspended space. Attention is drawn to two main circular elements: the first, larger, is placed almost at the center of the panel; the second, smaller, is located at the bottom right. These “discs” are connected by tubular structures and fantastical shapes that suggest the idea of ​​a closed circuit, a machine with a life of its own. The entire scene is bathed in a warm, nuanced hue that shifts from brown to ochre, illuminated by sudden brushstrokes of bright yellow.The most striking element is found in the upper left: here, the background hosts a play of reflections reminiscent of the artist’s studio windows. It is a legacy of the “Riflessismo” movement of the 1940s: Catarsini inserts the reality of his studio into the abstraction of the mechanical circuit, creating a bridge between the outside world and the technological universe he was imagining.

Note the contrast between the circular rigidity of the gears in the center and the almost ethereal fluidity of the reflections in the background. These reflected forms, which Catarsini would revisit for decades in both figurative and abstract works, here become the framework for a new world, where man is not visible, but is present through the reflection of his workroom.