Moving in the Right Circles

From Anish Kapoor to Adolph Gottlieb many contemporary artists exploit basic geometric shapes to construct works of harmony and balance. Simple forms --squares, rectangles, and triangles-- inform much of modern art, as do more complex parallelograms and quadrilaterals. No shape is more ubiquitous than the circle. Small or large, the circle has the ability to dominate compositions in a variety of ways. Its universal presence and significance make it an important part of Dario Zucchi’s vision.

A human head, with hair or without, is a round form. Juxtaposed with larger or smaller circles the head often becomes an integral part of a geometric arrangement in Zucchi’s photographs. In some instances the rear view of a head is silhouetted against circular sculpture, as in the case of the figure in front of the work of Olaf Eliasson (Fig. 086). Here the head becomes part of the complex interplay with three other rounded forms. In front of other sculptures Zucchi allows the circle beyond the figure to interact subtly with its spectral reflection on the waxed floor, as with Martin Puryear’s wall piece (fig. 053). Sometimes the photographer does not utilize the silhouette, instead merging a head with the shape beyond, as in the kneeling figure does before the Anish Kapoor (fig. 027).

Zucchi chooses similar strategies in the photographs that employ paintings with emphatic circles in their design. In many ways the figure standing in front of Paul Reed’s painting (fig. 385) is a two-dimensional version of the previous photograph. Similarly Zucchi may absorb a whole figure into a grand circle, as in the photo that includes Lee Bontecou’s work (fig. 452). Paintings lead Zucchi to different strategies and solutions. One approach constructs a parallel between two similarly-sized golden circles on a vertical axis, as in the blonde-haired youth wearing a blue hoodie before a painting of Thomas Downing (fig. 082). Here the parallel shapes and matching colors fuse into one of Zucchi’s most memorable images. Zucchi uses an analogous format, this time on a horizontal plane, in the black-and-white figure caught in front of the Massimo Grimaldi painting (fig. 419). 

A thick head of hair may evoke simple affinities for Zucchi with the iconic shapes of the modern masters. He captures the precise contour of just such a head of hair in juxtaposition with an Adolph Gottlieb canvas (fig. 076). The shape is reinforced by the even, black silhouette of the head against the pure flat colors of Gottlieb’s composition.