Emilio Isgrò: Erasing to Create

Erasing to Create

This exhibition traces the extraordinary artistic journey of Emilio Isgrò (b. 1937), from his pioneering experiments with visual poetry during the early 1960s to his most recent creative explorations. In so doing, it charts the evolution of his well-known practice of Cancellatura (Erasure), whereby the words and letters of printed texts are judiciously obscured with the aim of suggesting new meanings and visual rhythms.

Isgrò’s erasure of text reflects an enduring conviction that meaning lies buried beneath layers of information, ideology and convention. Radical in its simplicity, Isgrò’s technique strips away verbiage, enabling what remains to speak with greater intensity. As the artist himself has asserted, the process of Cancellatura “does not destroy but creates; it does not censor but reveals”.

One of the defining threads of Isgrò’s practice is his engagement with maps and globes. Since the late 1960s, he has subjected cartography to the same process of erasure as written texts, obscuring place names, borders and routes – those tools with which humanity claims to know and divide the world. Such works invite viewers to reconsider the relationship between geography, identity and power.

This exhibition offers British audiences the first opportunity to follow Isgro’s ideas from their earliest, most intimate manifestations to their more expansive and politically charged expressions, and includes a major new piece titled Brexit, conceived specifically for the occasion.

Curated by Roberta Cremoncini and organised in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in London and the Fondazione Emilio Isgrò, it celebrates more than six decades of innovation and a practice that continues to redefine the relationship between word and image. The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of talks and workshops, as well as a fully illustrated publication.

Images: Emilio Isgrò, Preghiera per l’Europa, 2016, Archivio Emilio Isgrò
Emilio Isgrò, 2019 (C) Andrea Valentini