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Fascinated by everyday objects, Domenico Gnoli depicts them on canvas, enlarged and isolated from their normal surroundings. The rear view of two women's pumps takes up the entire painting surface, while only the ankles of the women's legs are captured in the picture. The artist rarely depicts people, and when he does, it is only partially or from behind. The familiar object appears mysterious in its oversized representation, alienated from its usual context, and it reaches a new level of reality through its hyper-sharp presentation. 'For me, the everyday object itself, magnified by the attention given to it, is more important, more beautiful and more terrible than any invention or fantasy could have made it.'

Born and raised in Rome, Domenico Gnoli died of cancer in New York in 1970, at the age of only 37. 'Ever since I can remember, I knew I would become a painter because my father, an art historian, presented painting to me as the only acceptable thing in the world. He introduced me to classical Italian painting... For several years, I struggled to paint because I couldn't empathise with informal painting... So I turned passionately to theatre, creating several stage sets... I have always worked as I do today, but it went unnoticed because it was the hour of abstraction. I am a metaphysician insofar as I seek a non-talkative style of painting[.] I am not a metaphysician in that I never seek to stage anything... I always use given and simple elements; I don't want to add anything or take anything away. I never even feel the urge to distort: I isolate and present' (interview, 1965).