Sketch for Genoa, No. 2
Sandro Chia
Italian, born 1946
1980
A preparatory study in watercolor, pencil, and ballpoint pen where Sandro Chia loosely composes floating, classically suggestive figures amid lively color to explore movement and atmosphere.
Soft, cloudlike washes of blue, red, green, and brown swirl across the sheet while lightly sketched and more fully shaded human forms—some only outlines, others rendered in graphite—seem to drift, leap, or pose within the colored space.
Made during the Transavanguardia moment, the drawing distills Chia’s project to revive expressive, figurative painting—combining mythic references, spontaneous gesture, and vivid color to reopen narrative and emotion in contemporary art.
Medium
Watercolor, pencil, and ballpoint pen on paper
Dimensions
17 1/2 x 20 3/8" (44.5 x 51.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Contemporary European Drawings Fund
Accession
70.1981
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
