Simbolismo meccanico

72. Simbolismo meccanico, 1982, oil on cardboard, cm 50 x 70

This horizontal work represents a luminous exception in the artist’s oeuvre. Unlike the dark and heavy atmospheres typical of Mechanical Symbolism, here Catarsini explores a dimension of great chromatic and ethereal vitality. The forms are defined by the harmonious juxtaposition of red, white, yellow, and blue, creating a sense of fluidity with the background. At the bottom right, an elliptical shape serves as the visual fulcrum. From here, a dense network of imaginative connections—tubes, gears, and filaments—unravels, expanding to cover the entire surface of the painting, like a growing mechanical organism. On the right, we encounter one of the elements common to Mechanical Symbolist works: a spherical cogwheel, here red, surrounded by a luminous white spoke, created with a technique reminiscent of Divisionism. Imagine a series of small touches of white, almost like raised dots, creating a vibrant halo around the wheel. Through this dotted pattern, other underlying shapes can be glimpsed through transparency. The work conveys a sense of harmony and overlap. Despite the complexity of the “circuit,” the choice of bright primary colors and the use of white lend lightness to the composition, almost as if the machine had found its own luminous soul.