Oval Mural. Optical Abstraction by Enrico Sirello, 1977 – Italian Arte Programmata Movement

Optical Abstraction by Enrico Sirello, 1977 – Italian Arte Programmata Movement

This painting, Mural Ovale (Oval Mural), created in 1977 by Enrico Sirello (Livorno, 1930–2012), arises from the intersection between Sirello’s interest in abstract art and his study of psychology and visual perception.
For the artist, painting was not simply the act of creating an image but the act of exploring how vision works — how form, color, and direction interact to shape the way we see.

Painted in acrylic on panel (35 × 35 cm), signed, dated, and titled on the reverse (archive no. 05/9378), this work belongs to a group of studies the artist conceived as “visual experiments.” The black and white geometric forms, crossed by two red axes, appear to move and oscillate, as if the surface were alive.

Sirello described such compositions as “night observations”, emerging from “the darkness of the mind” — mental visions rather than dreams, where thought and perception merge. The result is a controlled yet dynamic geometry, a visual field that activates the eye of the viewer.

Through these investigations, Sirello translated the principles of Gestalt psychology into art, developing what he called anisotropic effects — forms that seem to change as the viewer’s gaze shifts direction. His works from the 1970s embody this union of science and art, thought and movement, intellect and emotion.

Condition: good original condition, stable surface, light wear consistent with age.
Frame: original black wooden strip frame.

Biography
Enrico Sirello (1930–2012) was an Italian painter from Livorno who explored the link between art and perception. Instead of representing the visible world, he focused on how the mind organizes what it sees — an idea that connected him to the movement of Arte Programmata, born in Italy during the 1960s.

He believed that a painting could be designed like a scientific experiment, where rhythm, color, and form generate movement and optical tension. His compositions are built with precision but open to perception, changing with the viewer’s gaze.

In 1965 he took part in the important exhibition Strutture Significanti, together with Baldi, Cannilla, Drei, Glattfelder, Guerrieri, Lazzari, Lorenzetti, Masi, Pace, and Pesciò, accompanied by texts from Giulio Carlo Argan, Germano Beringheli, and Emilio Garroni.

Throughout his life, Sirello remained faithful to one idea: that art is a mental space, where thought becomes visible and the act of seeing turns into an experience.