Cemento armato n. 22, 1961

Giuseppe Uncini stated that his research was always guided by “a fixed, constant idea, to build and structure.” During the mid-1950s he began to utilize materials that had been extraneous to the artistic tradition until then, such as marble or coal dust, ashes, sawdust, lime, and cement, in a series of paintings with equally unusual supports, such as cardboard, masonite, or celotex. In 1957 the artist overcame the dichotomy between possible pictorial materials and supports, identifying cement and iron as tools that would allow him to achieve autonomous works, free from any metaphorical intention, where the process coincides with the outcome. He called this series of works Cemento armato (Reinforced Concrete). [...]