sprezzatura #romanstreetcollage

sprezzatura: (noun), (Italian) effortlessness or ease, esp. in art or literature; careless grace; nonchalance “I have found quite a universal rule which in this matter seems to me valid above all other, and in all human affairs whether in word or deed: and that is to avoid affectation in every way possible as though it were some rough and dangerous reef; and (to pronounce a new word perhaps) to practice in all things a certain sprezzatura [nonchalance], so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.”

-Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (1528)

FROSCH&CO is pleased to present sprezzatura #romanstreetcollage, Dennis Dawson’s fourth solo show with the gallery. After an extended stay in Rome, the recent body of work represents the artist’s effort to create a facsimile or simulacra of the Roman street's weathered, time-worn surfaces and walls. Dawson’s dé-collages combine peeled and ripped away imagery to a new composition, while his interventions in the city simultaneously alter its lacerated walls to yet another transformed appearance.

Being thousands of years old, these walls are scratched, pockmarked, postered, and graffitied—an organic layering of marks and images in which randomness and specificity mingle. Built up over time, the surfaces often change daily and nightly as people glue new posters and add additional images around and on top of those already there. A blurry line between randomness and intention, between control and abandon, between remembering and forgetting.

Looking at and reading the walls of an urban neighborhood can reveal a lot. Cultural, religious, personal, and political symbols are layered one on top of another—the sacred and profane exist as a broken yet somehow harmonious whole. These palimpsests of marks and images embody what the Italians call sprezzatura, which exhibits an effortless or careless grace or nonchalance.

Giorgio Vasari explored this concept in his book Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1884). In his text, he introduced the notion of “grace” as an aesthetic result of sprezzatura. Vasari further reveals the changing nature of sprezzatura, stating that it adapts to the style and taste of a specific period. For centuries people have come to the eternal city to see its beauty and art. It can be found in historic venues, churches, palazzos, and museums. But art and beauty is in other more pedestrian places too. It’s in alleyways, courtyards, piazzas, bar rooms, and on bathroom walls. Often, the aesthetic is in plain sight. We need only allow ourselves the freedom to see it and be affected by it.

Dennis Dawson received his BFA in painting from the Ohio University and his MFA from the University of Tennessee. The artist lives and works in the New York metro area.