Artist of the Week: Salvatore Emblema

Born in 1929 in a town perched on the slope of the volatile Mt. Vesuvius overlooking Pompeii, Salvatore Emblema strove to transcend the physicality and materiality of painting and simply float color in a dazzling spectacle before viewers, to create "transparent" painting. The term, coined in 1969 by Italian art historian Giulio Carlo Argan, one of Emblema's most ardent supporters, describes a particular way art can interact with light and space. If chiaroscuro is the use of subtle gradations of light and shade to create depth and drama in painting, Emblema focused his attention on the "chiaro" to the extreme, inviting ambient light to enter his paintings and his landscape installations without artifice. He sought to strip away the conventional plane, making the flat surface almost transparent.

To achieve this effect, Emblema used sackcloth and raw jute with a very open weave as his supports and raw pigment as his medium. The artist intended to allow light to pass through the open woven structure of the support and bounce back, effectively illuminating the work from behind and within. Later, he began to remove threads of jute to further open up the support and allow even more light to penetrate the painting.

While Emblema's often subdued and earthy color palette, as well as his penchant for using raw materials like leaves, volcanic earth, petrified lava, and oxidized metals, are often seen as a tribute to his hometown of Terzigno, his color field compositions were inspired by American Abstract Expressionism. Early in his career, Emblema spent two years in the United States (from 1956 to 1958), invited by David Rockefeller, one of his avid collectors, who introduced him to artists such as Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. Their influence is evident in Emblema's oeuvre.

Salvatore Emblema
Senza Titolo, 1975
Close up of de-threaded jute, tinted soils on jute canvas
130 x 100 cm


In Senza Titolo 1975, the thin grid of burlap fibres supports a floating colour field of deep blue, with a strait black line running down the middle. Emblema’s variations on the density of the fabric’s weave creates further colours — pale beige, tan, sandy — just as different openings allow the white of the wall behind the artwork to be more or less visible. In another work, Senza Titolo 1992, the block of unruly black brushstrokes is surrounded by clay-red margins. The central field is sprinkled with bright red and white accents that create rhythm and complexity in the work.

Salvatore Emblema
Senza Titolo 1992
Tinted soils on jute canvas
Signed and dated on the reverse
253 x 150 cm

Salvatore Emblema, Senza Titolo 1992, close up, tinted soils on jute canvas, 253 x 150 cm.
Signed and dated on the reverse



Theodore & C. is in awe of Emblema’s ability to manipulate the viewer’s perception of the medium and its relationship to space. To view more works by the artist go here.