La Toile de Penelope (1959), a textile collage created in collaboration with his wife Licia Monesi, represents a departure in technique from Bertini’s usual style, possibly influenced by Alberto Burri. The artwork is part of Espaces imaginaires, an informal painting series spanning from 1953 to 1960. Abstract and gestural, these works feature significant titles referencing mythological characters like Oedipus, Dido, Artemis, Mars, and others. Ancient myths served as a means for Bertini to reconstruct a modern shared humanism after the war and to interpret his own feelings, views, and personal life. Mimicking the immediacy of brushstrokes, various fabric scraps are sewn together with wide and intentionally irregular stitches so that the artwork, seen from a distance, bears an expressionist quality, which is contradicted by the painstaking assembly of patches and threads. The incorporation of fabrics and threads alludes to Penelope’s actual web, adding an additional layer of meaning to the artwork.
—Antonella Camarda
