Sculptural Essence of Line: Early 1950s

Martich-Severi’s development was truly sustained and never deviated from the aesthetic logic which dwelt and grew within him. Whilst this language found most complete expression in the small scale biro and felt pen forms, its energy flowed naturally into three dimensional ideas. An undated folio of drawings, called Bosbelli Sculpture Drawing Folio, reveals the importance of line to the development of the artist’s sculpture. We may guess these drawings to be from the early 1950s, given their similarity to a composition in ink from 1952, entitled Baccanti, and the logic that they must pre-date certain sculptures. The link to Baccanti, to drawings of the late 1940s, and compositions in the late 1950s endows the Bosbelli studies with a dual significance; they inform and give clues to both the artist’s three dimensional and two dimensional language. Hence this discussion deals with them in relation to both developments, whilst a comparitive study of Martich - Severi’s entire corpus of sculpture is discussed later on.
As works of art in themselves, the Bosbelli studies impart a deep tenderness and sensuality. They also provide us with a rare glimpse into the initial stages of creative thought. Here we find the artist in a state which is truly light, free, and emotionally resonant.
Due to many factors, not the least of which were financial, Martich-Severi realized very few sculptural projects. The principle exceptions were Adam, Eve , and Diana, the formal seeds of which may be found in these studies. Adam, Eve and Dianna, realized in 1965 and 1963 respectively, were conceived as drawings in 1951. The drawings hold a very similar feeling and rhythm to the Bosbelli studies, strengthening the previously estimated date of the latter.
Thematically the Bosbelli studies and Baccanti belong to a tradition of arcadian celebration of love, dance, and music. Whilst the formal qualities of Constantin Brancusi and Jean Arp come to mind, it is the spirit of August Rodin and Henri Matisse which resonates in kinship with these works.
A monograph of drawings, printed in 1974 confirms the date of the Bosbelli studies to 1951. The works reproduced in pgs 20 and 21 of the monograph includes Amanti in Vollo, a drawing included in the Bosbelli sculpture folio. The other works on these pages, have unfortunately not as yet come to light. Like the Bosbelli studies already mentioned, these works are a deeply beautiful expression of sensuality, love, and music.

Baccanti painted in ink in 1952 holds a special spiritual resonance in Martich-Severi’s oeuvre. Like in his drawing studies, the veil of artifice is truly lifted in this beautiful, unassuming work. The forms speak, without hardly seeming to be there. There is the feeling of an ancient carnival, of timeless music; it is another world which awakens a distant memory within the viewer. One thinks of a pagan festival situated in no time or place; forever suspended on the horizon of our knowing. The Discovery of Music holds a deep affinity with Baccanti, suspended as it seems in that same distant festival. There is an aching melancholy present here, a feeling of profound pathos which would haunt the chain song of Martich Severi’s future biros.
The theme of music is one which is naturally manifest throughout the oeuvre. One thinks of the dark and brooding self portrait of 1948, and the oil ‘fugues’ also of the1940s; these are direct references which convey the artist’s instinctive affinity. The analogy runs as deeply as the visual investigation. The Discovery of Music and Baccanti do not dwell on the surface; they delve, rather, into the mystery of cognitive awakening, the moment of discovery of a deeper world.
The awakening of love is perhaps the most richly celebrated theme in all traditions and art forms. The tender convergence of arcs in the Bosbelli studies reveals a unique and sophistiacated modernist enrichment of this ageless story. In feeling one thinks of Chagall’s gravity - defying lovers and Matisse’s amorous ballads of line which celebrate the poems of Stephanne Mallarme.
A fine artist, like a fine poet, may elicit much with an extreme economy of means. This is especially true of Martich-Severi, whose oeuvre is an exemplary example of humble material turned into gold. Baccanti exists, with other compositions of the early 1950s, as a bridge to a new aesthetic understanding which began to evolve in the artist’s work in the latter part of the decade.