"I prepare an impasto which contains pigments and chalk. I spread a thin layer of colour each day, almost at the same time [because of the consistency of light], for 15 days or more, depending on the thickness I want to get. In this time you can’t see the final colour, only at the end, when the pigments are dispersed on the surface through abrasion, you discover a totally different colour... the pigment dust’s final burst."
Ettore Spalletti, installation view, La beauté est là où l’œil se pose, Galerie LeLong, Paris 2013, photo courtesy of Galerie LeLong
"Yes, the colour, as it shifts, occupies the space and we enter. The frame that delimited the space is no longer there. Taking it away, the colour takes on the space and invades the space. And when this happens, it’s miraculous."
Ettore Spalletti, installation view (one gallery room) Un giorno cosi bianco, cosi bianco, Fondazione MAXXI, Rome 2014, photo courtesy of Fondazione MAXXI
para 1: via Apollo 2016 How do you capture a colour? Interview with Ettore Spalletti
para 2: via MAXXI Foundation 2014 press release Un Giorno Cosi Bianco, Cosi Bianco curated by Anna Mattirolo
first posthumous exhibition of Ettore Spalletti: Il cielo in una stanza (The sky in a room), curated by Éric de Chassey, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, 25 October 2021 - 27 February 2022
.