Giacinto Cerone (1957-2004), abstract sculpture, red glazed ceramic, after 1993

"The works of Giacinto Cerone (Melfi 1957 - Rome 2004) bear the marks of a profound restlessness. Cerone attacks the material with rapid, incisive gestures. Cuts, twists, and lacerations become the formal synthesis of the sculptor's exuberant plastic composition. Although Cerone has used diverse materials (wood, metal, plaster, Plexiglas, fiberglass, Moplen, ceramic, marble, and stone) with depth and passion, it is obviously ceramic (and, to a large extent, plaster) that perhaps most directly and literally conveys the imprint of his physicality and gesture.
He subjected the hollow geometric blocks of raw earth, which were prepared for him from 1993 until his death at the Bottega Gatti in Faenza, to twisting, breaking, and tearing, even to the point of beating them with a hose if his body failed to make them explode with rage and desperation, ecstasy and life.
His way of working with clay occurred through removals and returns, burials and emergences, in which today's events reawaken and give new meaning to yesterday's facts. In his case, we can speak of the trauma of sculpture, projecting and transforming into the creative processes themselves any original struggle with the material or any existential activity."