Miro Cusumano - A major player in the Italian

I knew him inside of Carmelo's studio, and he brought me in Borromei street, where, at the time, he practiced in Paolo Schiavocampo and Brusamolino's studio, along with an ever changing scene of other artists. His M.O. was always.. Not necessary playful, but he was able to take things in a light-hearted way. This was Miro. Our artistic knowledges we had at the time were limited to the late-19th century art, so Miro was a discovery. The discovery of a different, and fascinating artistic world. Miro is in this room and every other room of my house, in every place where I live and reside. He's here for this particular aspect, the one regarding introspection and internal research. In this way, Miro marks our religiosity. I'm glad I bought Miro's paintings, this way he keeps talking to me, even if he's quiet. He was really gabby, but so was I, so we got along pretty well. 22 years have passed since we wrote this monography, the more I think to Miro's work the more I'm sure he's a protagonist of the Italian abstractism movement. His art is characterized by a strong, intense "lyrical dimension". He started with informal painting but turned soon on a more geometric based art, geometry being the catalyst used to reflect on the relationship between squares and circles. The circle has always been the primary symbol of completeness and fullness and somehow, of the divine. The square, on the other hand, has always been intended as emblem of the earth. In his pursuit of harmony between square and circle, then, there's also a research of the strain between "existing and being". Nothing was left to casualty in Miro's work, from "Vele" to the painting behind me. Extraordinary handicraft application was always preceded by a rigorous project, drawn by the artist. Our researches followed not the same path, but parallel ones, meaning we didn't pursuit the same objective, but we used similar modules. While he searched something still, fixed and "iconic", I was instead focusing on movement. He took his research really seriously, sometimes even too much. He was slow and steady, and every single thing needed to be done in a precise way: the way he thought it was the right one. Miro's paintings are a bit him and a bit how I felt him, especially one of his quality, the full embracement of life and the pursuit of happiness through this bright paintings. The idea, for example, that some geometric.. "geometrizzanti" aspects becomes, using color and his intensity, really bright details. We can always note, in his research, this spiritual dimension not immediately visible, subterranean, but present nonetheless. In his last works he finally found a definitive lightness, a path in which emptiness, silence and white surrounding the marks get bigger and bigger, while marks become smaller, lighter, weighting less but becoming more "aerial" and more poetical. This means a happy intensity, his paintings bring happiness. This, and the joy, and even the geometric aspect which can sometimes struck you with a sense of excessive order.. Everything was surely studied, was beautiful, was precise but, at the same time, was hiding something more to it: The harmony, the massive search for harmony, and this is the major cause of happiness, being our happiness and the one of others. The successful, at least in my opinion,attempt of purifying shapes, while never denying them, progressively "ripping flesh from them" to finally achieve marks capable of suggesting the shapes while leaving the watcher the opportunity to interpret them on different levels. There was probably from Miro a simplification aiming at an "explosion of freedom". If only life wasn't so time-avid, I'm sure he would've continued his research, which was not ended by any means. He wasn't on a shortage of ideas, either. With his last work we can appreciate this "lyrical dimension" always present in his paintings but gaining a more sorrowful, evident and mysterious aspect on the last ones. His last works, being really minimalistic, force the observer, giving him directions, like some sort of road signs. Those indications are the only element he puts in the painting, he finally reached the ultimate synthesis of his thinking process. White never meant "emptiness". It was some sort of a "talking void", and that's why we made "Bianco Rumore" (A book, literally meaning "White noise", ndt). Because this white.. Exists. It's not like there's nothing between us talking right now. There is. And it keeps on talking.