This sculpture of Livio is an early work. It carries the seed of his vision, 1970s.
Livio started as a great maestro, his figurative pieces of his artist infancy already had a tendency of simplifying the design and reducing the colors. He slowly started researching purity of forms and reducing the colors. He worked then practically only in gray acciao or clear, ending using clear glass only. This piece is from that turning point period, a milestone.
Other media artist have followed the same path, however in sculpture and painting there is still a color where the light is reflected. Marble and canvas becomes the boundary where the artist has to stop. This frustration brought Fontana to cut the canvas. Livio path had the opportunity, or the faith, to use a media that allowed him to go beyond any color. He worked with light and transparency.
He uses neutral glass and his brush and chisel is the light refraction. There is a breath-taking solo show at the Murano glass museum of him. You can see from the sketches that he knows how light would play with the piece.
He was and is a passionate of photography and shared this passion with Carlo Nason. He told me the essence of photographing clear glass, never light the object the beam of light should go on the foreground wall.
This Masaccio glass piece is an abstract bust, recalling the metaphysical paintings of Carra and De Chirico. It’s just one curve creating several lens effects. There is a nice photo showing how the background Tuscan landscape is reversed on the head.

Livio has passed the point of being an glass artist, he is an artist that uses glass, in the last decades he started using mixed-media, with perfect execution of marble, granite, wood, glass.

This sculpture is for collector and art lovers. Needs a special place.