Two examples of this type of work can be seen in the two paintings on display in the passageway leading into this gallery and in Dalla metafisica del colore: i concetti strutturali elementari geometrici, Ettore e Andromaca, 1978 (shown at the 38th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 1978), which is based on the dimensional relationship between canvas and line, and on mathematical proportions linked to the Golden Section.

This series pays direct tribute to the metaphysical world of Giorgio de Chirico, which also appears in an essay of 1975 entitled La metafisica del colore by Nigro himself.

The earthquake that struck Irpinia in southern Italy in 1980, causing numerous deaths and injuries, was the incident and triggering factor behind a series of paintings that Nigro made in that and the following year: “No word is said about it now: the earthquake was a catastrophe, far more serious. It looms over us, now even more than in the past: it was a war”.
The dramatic event reflected an equally tumultuous and intense seismic shock in his artistic life at the time, while his awareness of the precariousness of life and time left an indelible mark on his painting. This series included Rivoluzione, 1981 and Il terremoto (dalla Tempesta), 1980. The latter took its cue from the flash of lightning that appears in The Tempest, 1502-3, by Giorgione, which Nigro refers to directly in the title.

The absolute centrality of the line continued in his new search for “horizons”: this time, however, the trace does not touch the edges of the canvas, but rather breaks before them, so as to emphasize the sense of loneliness, and the sudden, tragic end. Having now abandoned the precise, disciplined logic of mathematics, Nigro’s painting becomes increasingly introspective and analytical to the point that he begins to segment the line into its most indivisible unit, which is to say the dot, as we see in the two Senza titolo of 1984.