Vatican Museums

The Stele is one of the most complete examples of linguistic research conducted by the Tuscan sculptor Venturino Venturi in the post-World War II period. Largely autonomous and external to the abstraction-figuration debate, but sensitive and attracted to the excitement of contemporary art, he stayed in Milan from 1947 to 1948, where he entered into contact with Migneco, Birolli and Lucio Fontano, who invited him to join the Spatialism movement.
The large wooden Stele is typical of the experiments he carried out during those years: Venturino carved the surface of an old door panel, enlivening it with geometric and cosmomorphic elements, and used it first as the matrix for woodcut printing, before subsequently transforming it into a sculpture. The large print on display in the room is a monotype obtained by pressing the panel impregnated with intaglio ink onto paper.