joseph scissorhands: Fausto Melotti. Theatre

Sunday 13 March 2022

Fausto Melotti. Theatre

Fausto Melotti - Teatrino (Little Theatre), 1950c. (detail)

I really enjoyed the sense of drama evoked in both the beautiful presentation of this exhibition and in the artworks themselves. The exhibition focuses on the theatrical sculptures, ceramics and original drawings created by Italian artist Fausto Melotti (1901-1986) from the 1930s to 1980s. As well as his artistic pursuits Melotti took pleasure in the theatre and used its qualities of dramaturgy and allegory to design his 'teatrini' or little theatres pictured below. Melotti then progressed to design actual theatre sets and costume designs for various productions and ballets. The delicate, Lilliputian sculptures featured here are really charming evoking a sense of narrative and spectacle in the way they have been cleverly lit by the curators of the show. I had no trouble visualising them at full scale as the backdrop to performative storytelling. I detected the influence of Surrealism on several of the works, and enjoyed his recurrent employment of certain theatrical motifs such as ladders, draped curtain backdrops and gridded/compartmentalised boxes which are used to frame his figures. The hollowed out wall and custom made white pedestals upon which Melotti's artworks rest are designed by artist Aaron Angel and perfectly complement the little sculptures.