Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool, the fascinating play of colours of grey and yellow on the site of Podere Santa Pia remind me of something, and I don’t know what it is is.

	“For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so, because it serenely disdains to destroy us. Every angel is terrible.”
	Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies (1923)

Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool, removing the formwork preparation created a fascinating play of colours of grey and yellow.
This yellow ranges from ochre to saffron and reminded me of the Amsterdam Cantos by Jürgen Partenheimer, or the Red Yellow Blue paintings by Brice Marden from the seventies, and even Joseph Albers and his 'The Interaction of Colour' came into mind, a masterwork in art education and a key to understanding color relationships and human perception.

Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool, the fascinating play of grey and yellow seems like a work of art

Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool, the fascinating play of grey and yellow

The fascinating play of colours of grey and yellow on the site of Podere Santa Pia

The fascinating play of colors of grey and yellow on the site of Podere Santa Pia [1]

It reminds me of something, and I don’t know what it is was. [4] And for a single second, I imagined that the construction of a swimming pool could be the ultimate goal of all visual art. Deeply rooted in the earth, a pool always reflects the sky, where all our thoughts and beliefs are held.

Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool, the formwork was removed

Podere Santa Pia, construction of an ideal swimmig pool, the formwork was removed

Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool [1]

	“A sensitive eye for color became our first concern.”
	Joseph Albers

Josef Albers (1888 – 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. He was the first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA[2] and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,[3] he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, headed Yale University's department of design, and is considered one of the most influential teachers of the visual arts in the twentieth century.
Albers enrolled as a student in the preliminary course (vorkurs) of Johannes Itten at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1920.
In 1925, the year the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, Albers was promoted to professor. At this time, he married Anni Albers (née Fleischmann) who was a student at the institution. His work in Dessau included designing furniture and working with glass. As a younger instructor, he was teaching at the Bauhaus among established artists who included Oskar Schlemmer, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee. The Bauhaus Manifesto, published in April 1919 by its founder, the architect Walter Gropius, did not leave Josef Albers and Annelise Fleischmann indifferent, each feeling a growing dissatisfactlon with their own artistic training.

“The ultimate aim of all visual arts is the complete building! [...] Architects, sculptors, painters, we must all return to the crafts! For art is not a “profession.” There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman.”

As an artist, Albers worked in several disciplines, including photography, typography, murals and printmaking. He is best known for his work as an abstract painter and a theorist. His book Interaction of Color was published in 1963[2].

The fascinating play of colours of grey and yellow on the site of Podere Santa Pia reminded me of
Joseph Albers and 'The Interaction of Colour' [1]

Walter Gropius, “Bauhaus Manifesto and Program” (1919)

The ultimate aim of all visual arts is the complete building! To embellish buildings was once the noblest function of the fine arts; they were the indispensable components of great architecture. Today the arts exist in isolation, from which they can be rescued only through the conscious, cooperative effort of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must recognize anew and learn to grasp the composite character of a building both as an entity and in its separate parts. Only then will their work be imbued with the architectonic spirit which it has lost as “salon art.”

The old schools of art were unable to produce this unity; how could they, since art cannot be taught. They must be merged once more with the workshop. The mere drawing and painting world of the pattern designer and the applied artist must become a world that builds again. When young people who take a joy in artistic creation once more begin their life’s work by learning a trade, then the unproductive “artist” will no longer be condemned to deficient artistry, for their skill will now be preserved for the crafts, in which they will be able to achieve excellence.

Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For art is not a “profession.” There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. In rare moments of inspiration, transcending the consciousness of his will, the grace of heaven may cause his work to blossom into art. But proficiency in a craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies the prime source of creative imagination. Let us then create a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist! Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith.°

Reflection of the evening sunset in southern Tuscany on the first sketch of a swimming pool at Podere Santa Pia

Mobile Working Cabin with an extraordinary view, amongst the cypresses and the lush greenery of Podere Santa Pia

Reflection of the evening sunset in southern Tuscany on the first sketch of a swimming pool at Podere Santa Pia

Mobile Working Cabin with an extraordinary view, amongst the cypresses and the lush greenery of Podere Santa Pia

A sudden appearance in the garden

The unspoilt landscape of the Tuscan Maremma, a more than ideal place for a swimming pool

And early in the morning the first workmen arrived

Podere Santa Pia, early in the morning, the first workmen arrived, silent and with a strange determination they went to work, what for them was a daily act was for us a unique experience

The wild garden of Podere Santa Piain the unspoilt landscape of the Tuscan Maremma, offers a more than ideal place for a swimming pool

And early in the morning the first workmen arrived

Podere Santa Pia, early in the morning, the first workmen arrived, silent and with a strange determination they went to work, what for them was a daily act was for us a unique experience

Constructing our swimming pool, wood formwork preparation

Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool, wood formwork preparation. Carpentry skills are required to form a perfect swimming pool design

Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool, workman waiting to pour the concrete

Constructing our swimming pool, wood formwork preparation

Constructing Santa Pia swimming pool, wood formwork preparation. Carpentry skills are required to form a perfect swimming pool design

Workman waiting to pour the concrete

Podere Santa Pia, Grotere kaart bekijken

Podere Santa Pia ligt in het hart van de Toscaanse Maremma (Februari)

Podere Santa Pia ligt in het hart van de Toscaanse Maremma (Februari)

Podere Santa Pia, with its wide panoramic terrace overlooking the Maremma

Colline sotto Podere Santa Pia, paesaggio di Ungaretti

° Manifesto of the Staatliches Bauhaus | www.bauhausmanifesto.com

[1] Photo by Rein Ergo © All rights reserved
[2] This paragraph is taken from the Wikipedia article Josef Albers, published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0.
[3] Maurice Poirier, "Color-coded Mysteries," ARTnews 84, January 1985, p. 60(image) and p. 61 (text).
Robert Storr, "Brice Marden: Double Vision," Art in America, March 1985, p. 122 and p. 124, New York, 1984)
[4] Brice Marden: It reminds me of something, and I don’t know what it is was published on the occasion of the 2019 exhibition at Gagosian, in New York. The catalogue features full-color reproductions of Marden’s latest body of paintings and works on paper, which continues the Letter series he initiated in 2006.