6 LIBRI | SALVO

The artist Salvatore Mangione, known as Salvo, was born in Sicily in 1947 but spent most of his life in Turin, where he passed away in 2015. His early work was rooted in the realms of Arte Povera and Conceptual Art, reflecting on language as a form of art and, consequently, on painting as a language itself.
In the 1970s, Salvo chose to devote himself exclusively to painting, embracing an unconventional approach compared to the artistic movements of the time—when trends were leaning toward different disciplines—while simultaneously demonstrating a certain continuity both conceptually and in his artistic research.

Salvo interpreted the concept of experimentation through the repetition of recurring subjects and motifs that appear across his artworks—books, trees, vehicles, candles, factories, street lamps…—serving both as a simple, consistent painterly exercise and as the natural development of a conceptual and philosophical language.
6 libri, an oil painting on cardboard created in 1989, is emblematic of the artist’s style. The subjects, occupying the entire image space, are six books, open and stacked haphazardly. The two positioned on top have fluttering pages, as if a gentle breeze were caressing them. It’s a familiar, everyday scene, yet it is distinguished and enriched by Salvo’s signature style, with the pages painted in improbable luminous tones, creating the effect of an aurora borealis in place of the black characters of written text.
Ranging from everyday landscapes on the verge of abstraction to still-life compositions, Salvo’s practice stands as a reinterpretation of art history: a dedication to painting—one of the oldest artistic disciplines—while simultaneously offering a highly personal representational style, marked by an unmistakable palette of vibrant colors.

Salvo’s artworks are currently on display in the solo exhibition “Arrivare in tempo,” a retrospective organized in collaboration with the Salvo Archive and hosted at the Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin, from November 1, 2024, to May 25, 2025.
The extensive retrospective is accompanied by a comprehensive catalog titled “Salvo. Arrivare in tempo,” published by JRP | Editions in January 2025.

Salvo
6 libri, 1989
Oil on cardboard, 51 x 68 cm
Courtesy Cristina Tuarivoli, Archivio Salvo

Salvo, 6 libri, 1989.
Installation view at “Salvo. Arrivare in tempo”, Pinacoteca Agnelli Torino, 2024.
Courtesy Pinacoteca Agnelli, Torino. Photo credit Sebastiano Pellion di Persano.

26/02/25