Barabba

“As early as the Fifties”, writes Maurizio Calvesi, “Mastroianni alternates shiny, abstract forms, geometrically defined as light-reflecting planes, with materially Informal areas, rough, shadow-drenched, in a grand evocation of generative, formative processes, of quasi-volcanic impetuosity”. This work is an architectonic structure whose ambition is to totally occupy the space; it offers a multiplicity of visual approaches. In the 1940s Mastroianni had already abandoned all reference to “statues”; here he reworks the human figure, which remains the central theme and sole reference of his sculpture. Barabbas, solidly planted on the ground, opens his arms, in an impetus of flight. A metaphor of the Passion of Christ, this is a dramatic figure consisting in a mass of unrefined material, exploding in several directions, playing on the emotional contrast between light and dark. The sculpture is ruled by centrifugal force, triggering a movement as if it wanted to free the material from its internal structure. “Mastroianni”, writes Waldemar Geogre, “has invented his own anthropomorphism, he wants Olympus and Delphi. He loves the density of volume; his polyhedric forms evoke the pediments of ancient temples, continually transforming their sensation of force. Movement is an integral part of his composition”.