The Thinking Hands
Three years after the major retrospective held in collaboration with MUACC in Cagliari, this exhibition, curated by Paolo Cortese and Francesco Romano Petillo, offers the Athenian public a curated selection of works spanning from the early 1970s to the present. The works on display provide a clear insight into the artistic journey of the Roman artist, rightly regarded as one of the mothers of Italian Fiber Art.
In her early career, Franca Sonnino created large canvases, using acrylic and tempera totrace lines – continuous, dashed, or dotted – that intersected and overlapped, forming a dense web of patterns and grids. A few years later, she began to experiment with materials from the domestic realm most frequently associated with the feminine world, such as thread, sequins, lace, and fabric. Over time, she moved away from canvas as a medium and thread took the place of the brush. In the very early 1980s, Franca Sonnino invented the solid thread – a cotton thread reinforced with wire – through which she began to draw her universe in three dimensions.
Important cycles emerged in Sonnino’s work, including Landscapes: cultivated fields, rooftops and villages, Mosaics: large-scale modular surfaces, and Transparencies: where overlapping frames create a rhythmic interplay of impressions. However, books – whether individual, in small groups or as large installations – are undoubtedly among the artist’s most cherished subjects.
Another key aspect of Sonnino’s work is the use of shadow. Through a dynamic interplay of voids and solids, the artist creates architectural forms that invade the surrounding space and interact with it through the shadows cast by their profiles.
The title of the exhibition is inspired by an epithet coined by Marcello Venturoli in 1980 and seeks to capture the essence of Franca Sonnino’s creative process, which has remained consistent over more than five decades. While the work begins with an idea – and therefore has a mental and conceptual origin – it is then carried forward by the hands, guided solely by the heart. As the artist explains:
“When I start a work, I don’t really know in which direction it will develop or especially when it will be finished. I don’t ask myself questions; it’s a natural process, not governed by the mind but rather by the heart!”
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication with a text by Franca Zoccoli, the second in the Portfolio series dedicated to the gallery’s female artists.
