Matteo Calligari, Flash Art Number 291

In Flash Art journal I recently came across an article called 'Questions...about painting'. which featured various artists, including painter Matteo Calligari. In the article there was a photograph of one of his pieces, East 2013, (below left) which I was particularly drawn to. The Piece consists acrylic and transfer onto canvas, which is built up to create various blocks of different sizes stacked upon each other in a pyramidesque shape. The blogs use a variety of pastel colours with some greys and more neutral colours mixed in. The darker colours are situated more on the bottom blocks of the piece, and as the eye moves up the painted canvas display, the colours become lighter and more pastel. The colour used have a relaxing effect, and the way the colours have been blended and blurred into one another appears like a summer sunset sky. These qualities give the piece a sense of calm yet the square, rigid and tall structure also gives a strong, proud feel to the piece. I think that these two qualities combined give the work an unimposing importance which is a refreshing change to a lot of modern art in my opinion.