A moving elegance of rhythm.
   By Rossana Bossaglia

I truly believe - and my writings can confirm it - that Italian sculpture plays a dominant role in European art; the creative mastery of Italian sculptors is often combined with good technical skills, learnt by the masters in schools (like the one in Carrara) and applied through the use of different materials. Speaking of this art, we generally use the term ''to sculpt'', which means the use of a heavy tool (generally a hammer) to work hard materials: to create a sculpture, an artist must draw from formless matter some well-characterised images, taking them out of a still context. However, what we usually call sculpture is achieved through a process of soft, mellow shaping: this practice often serves as a preparatory step for both massive and plastic works. Besides, I would like to stress on the fact that the word ''sculpture'' has come to include all sorts of three-dimensional works, regardless of material thickness or technical procedure. Generally speaking, we usually attach the conventional label of ''sculpture'' to Mirella Guasti's work; however, it is worth mentioning that her production is quite varied, since the different materials and techniques used by the artist often lead to different stylistic effects: her works of terracotta enjoy an almost natural, physical softness, whereas the same works in bronze are usually lighter and more essential. Guasti loves working on the contrast of different techniques and materials, reproposing the same themes and compositions in always different ways, in order to show us how the creative processes may influence the interpretation of the subjects. The works here exposed provide a general overview of Guasti's works from the 80s to the present; through these works we can follow the evolution of the artist's taste and choice of subjects, always characterized by a remarkable expressive coherence. The artist was quite keen on portrait painting at the beginning of her career (see Cristina's and Giulia's portraits, painted respectively in 1983 and 1985); her subjects were portrayed in a very careful way, and are therefore easily recognizable. As the years went by, Guasti's style became more and more defined and personal. However, she seldom painted the same subjects or features, which are indeed quite varied. As already mentioned, Guasti's main interest was originally on portrait painting, although her images gradually started to get deformed; not only did the artist try to make her subjects as differentiated as possible, but she also worked at different effects of plastic intensity. Full-bodied images started to get more and more elongated, whereas their physical features were enriched with symbolic meanings. If the physical quality of the bodies had been the main communicative device in Guasti's early works, the same works gradually started to lose concreteness, becoming thinner and thinner and getting almost transfigured. Even when the work of art is not a portrait, it is quite possible to spot its source of inspiration and the characters it refers to; the native Indian, for example, can be easily recognized, not to mention the image of the illustrious painter Modigliani. Images of female nudes convey a sense of pleasant and pure sensuousness, deprived of any sexual connotation. Guasti's latest production shows a lesser interest in portrait painting, since the artist no longer aims at making comparisons through her works; the same characters are now portrayed in different situations; images are getting thinner and thinner, acquiring a new rhythm of expression even in the softest works of terracotta. These works have a rhythmic elegance of their own, and they can move us deeply.