Sandro Chia

Sandro Chia paints in an expressionistic, loosely figurative style that emphasizes form and color. Along with Francesco Clemente and Enzo Cucchi, Chia was a central figure in the Italian Transavanguardia movement, a Neo-Expressionist group that sought to reintroduce color and representation in their work as a reaction to the Conceptual Art of the 1980s. He uses vigorous brushstrokes and forceful gestures with charcoal and oils, treating his large canvases as dynamic elements to be shaped and worked upon. “My task and mission […] are to try to reanimate the body of the stretched canvas in front of me, as if it were a symbolic white whale found on a beach,” Chia has said. His subjects range from everyday scenes to the classical traditions deeply embedded in Italian history.