Carlo Zauli, circular abstract sculpture in white stoneware, 1970s

In the artistic career of Carlo Zauli, the 1960s and 1970s were a period of great uproar and changes. from a production of ceramics still strongly linked to both, tradition and functionalism, where decoration was central, through constant contacts with the contemporary artistic avant-gardes (the brothers Arnaldo and Gio Pomodoro, Leoncillo Leonardi, Afro, among others), Zauli's poetics moved towards a vision of the art object as an abstract, pure work, unrelated to any figurative appeal. The interest in the tactile aspects of materials stands out in Zaulis's research during the late 1960s, leading him to obtain a rich range of different kinds of stoneware, all tending towards monochrome white, later known as "Bianco di Zauli". Between 1973 and 1977 Zauli produced several works with a strongly materic and earthy aspect, where the massive use of manganese oxide led to the shifting of colour of the stoneware from the white surface to an almost black depth: these were the "Zolle" and the "Sconvolti".