The graphic production of Carlo Zinelli, despite its consistency, draws four distinct phases. The initial compositions (1956– 1959) are populated with farm life scenes displaying motifs in pure colors that would later become recurrent in his oeuvre: birds, goats, flora, buildings and silhouettes with stylized faces looking to the left. The second phase (1960–1964) confirmed his favorite themes, alluding to his disturbing experiences of the war: rifles and pistols, alpine troops with military helmets, and alpine churches. His compositions display a sparing use of color (matching tones, creation of shade, unified backgrounds) and dexterity. The ordering of subjects into clusters of four, bodies covered with quadruple circles (suggesting bullet perforations), and repeated semicolon-shaped figures (defined as “little priests”) are trademarks. Highly productive, Zinelli often turned his sheet over to continue on the back. The third phase (1965–1967) identifies with his ornamental calligraphic system made of letters, numbers, words, and decipherable sentences (prayers, nursery rhymes, reveries), which echo the artist’s fragmented speech. The “groups of four” are abandoned, giving rise to a leading figure depicted over starry or white backgrounds with features like syringes, stars, alpine soldiers with hooked noses, and horses. Drawings from the fourth phase (1968–1974) are dramatically detailed, many brimming with feather-like, undulating hatchings. Incorporating graphite and colored pencils, tones gradually fade. Zinelli traced his subjects in a fine line and immersed them in a cloud of varied strokes, delicately formed with the tip of his brush.

Adapted from text by Valérie Rousseau in Carlo Zinelli 1916–1974, exhibition brochure (New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2017).