Fausta Squatriti: Between Geometry, Symbolism, and Allegory

Fausta Squatriti, born in Milan in 1941, grew up in a family where art and culture were central. Her father was an engineer, while her mother was a poet whose works were published with illustrations by Enrico Baj and Lucio Fontana. This close connection with the artistic world became an integral part of her identity. In 1953, after visiting an exhibition of Picasso, the young Squatriti proclaimed: “I will be a cubist painter.”

Early Education and Influences

Her training at the Brera Academy in Milan was decisive. The encounter with the critic Guido Ballo guided her first theoretical explorations, leading to a thesis on the compositional method of Kandinsky. Initially, Squatriti experimented with Informal Art, the dominant movement of the time, but soon her focus shifted to color, form, and the expressive possibilities of still lifes. Inspired also by Tàpies, she began reducing human figures to flat, puzzle-like shapes, painted in diverse hues and assembled like jigsaw pieces. These works, charged with psychological undertones, marked the beginning of her reflection on space and perception.

Discovery of Three-Dimensionality

From painting, Squatriti moved to cut-outs: colorful fragments arranged in black containers, resembling a puppet theater. This experimentation introduced her to three-dimensionality, leading her to sculpture. Giorgio de Chirico defined her works as “disquieting options,” but in hindsight they anticipated the playful, ironic spirit that would characterize the culture of the 1980s.

From Playfulness to Geometry

The tragic atmosphere of the 1970s, marked by terrorism and social turmoil, pushed Squatriti toward a more somber and rigorous approach. She embraced geometry as a way to achieve both aesthetic and conceptual clarity. Black became dominant, while the square emerged as her central form. By cutting and recomposing it into endless variations, she sought to represent not only structure but also the void generated by transformation. Her works often combined surface compositions with sculptural volumes, uniting painting and three-dimensional exploration.

The Tripartite Model

A fundamental evolution in her research was the development of a tripartite model: juxtaposing a photograph, a geometric painting, and a sculptural object. This format, reminiscent of Joseph Kosuth’s conceptual “One and Three Chairs,” assumed in Squatriti’s art the role of a symbolic rebus. Unlike Kosuth, however, her aim was not linguistic but psychological: the resolution of the enigma lay in the emotional and existential depth of the viewer. Reality, symbol, and allegory became the three spheres of her creative grammar.

Themes of Suffering and Human Existence

In later years, Squatriti incorporated organic and industrial materials into her works—roots, dry flowers, and waste, often embedded in plaster and enclosed in wall-mounted boxes. These compositions expressed the fragility and suffering of human existence, caught between imprisonment and memory. For Squatriti, photography represented reality, geometric painting symbolized the universal, and sculpture embodied allegory, the synthesis of meanings. Her production became increasingly demanding for the viewer: truth, she affirmed, does exist, but it cannot be revealed at the surface level. It requires a deeper dimension of perception and participation.