oil on canvas, 70×60 cm
signed and dated lower right P. Conti 1920
Cousin Pia, which portrays Pia Labriola, is a unique example in the artist's pictorial journey. Although this marked the beginning of a revision of the avant-garde, it would never be practiced in these terms again by the artist. Conti himself discusses it in La gola del merlo, noting that in other works from the same period, "there is a taste for dense, solar pigment, which has no relation to the portrait of Cousin Pia, expressed with an ectoplasmic material that, now that Pia is dead, resembles her more."
The return to figuration is, on the other hand, achieved with respect for the “geometric values” and the “ornamental taste” that takes us back to “initial experiences”, to the “pleasure of chiseling” derived from Art Nouveau.
