Ugo Rondinone

UGO RONDINONE (Brunnen, Switzerland, 1964).
“The Clear,” 2014.
Mixed media (acrylic and Plexiglas) on wood.
Signed, dated, and titled on the reverse.
Provenance: Cladstone Gallery, Brussels.
Work published on the artist’s official website.
Measurements: 198 x 112 x 5 cm.

Within Ugo Rondinone’s body of work, “The Clear” (2014) belongs to the most poetic and contemplative facet of his practice—the one that has established him as one of the great innovators of contemporary abstract art. Influenced by Minimalism, Color Field Painting (previously represented by artists such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, whose large chromatic surfaces sought to provoke an emotional and almost transcendental response), and Conceptual Art, this series abandons any figurative reference to make light, color, and transparency the true protagonists of the work. Through subtle chromatic transitions and the use of Plexiglas, Rondinone creates compositions that change with the lighting and the viewer’s position, transforming contemplation into a sensory and emotional experience. Far from being a simple abstraction, “The Clear” invites viewers to pause, reflect, and experience the passage of time—a quest for serenity and transcendence that defines the artist’s creative universe and has made this type of work among the most highly regarded in his international body of work.

Ugo Rondinone is one of Switzerland’s most internationally renowned contemporary artists. Trained at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, he has lived and worked in New York since the late 1990s. His artistic practice encompasses sculpture, painting, installation, photography, video, and poetry, and focuses on the exploration of time, nature, the human condition, and the contemplative experience. He frequently employs intense and fluorescent colors, elementary forms, monumental human figures, animals, trees, rainbows, and large stacked stones, creating installations with a strong visual impact that invite reflection on solitude, spirituality, and the relationship between human beings and the landscape. Among his most celebrated works are “Seven Magic Mountains” (2016), a permanent installation of seven towers of enormous rocks painted in fluorescent colors in the Nevada desert near Las Vegas, which has become one of the most recognizable works of public art of the 21st century; and “Human Nature” (2013), a collection of gigantic stone figures exhibited at Rockefeller Center in New York. Rondinone has exhibited at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Tate Liverpool, the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2007, he represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale, cementing a career considered essential within the international contemporary art scene.