Embroideries

(original sold)

“Embroideries”; pencil, ink and oil on paper; 40 x 40 cm, 2004.

The maps of the sky, unlike the traditional maps, have no edges or boundaries. Here there is no demarcation between land and water, there is only the position of dots representing the stars in the vacuum of space, and possibly the lines joining these points, to create similarities with animals, symbols or objects that help us remember and recognize. The plot of these points and these lines creates a fictional embroidery. This is the starting point from which I begin this series of drawings. But here the map quickly becomes tangled and twisted. Symbolic forms and objects appear. At first they seem to be of value in orientation, but soon they reveal to be obstacles, capable of generating a maze, and so you get lost, passing from a geometric order to the chaos of a tangled skein.

Copenaghen

(original sold)

From the series WINDOWS, oil on paper, 21 x 15 cm, 2017.

The facade of a building is a sort of skin for it. A dress, a kind of embroidery where the alternation of elements (full and empty, windows, materials, structural and decorative elements) gives a different rhythm every time. In my travels I always wonder if it is possible to discover this rhythm and its variations, and if it is specific for that place, or whether modernity has made us all irreparably the same. But probably behind this interest there is also a sort of voyeurism. Who lives in these rooms? Which eyes glance from there? What kind of stories and tragedies hide in those houses?

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Withered trees

"Withered trees", oil and pencil on paper. 48 x 32 cm, 2014.

The structure of a tree is simple and curious: some ramifications in the air to catch the light, some branching underground to pick up the food. But branches and roots are similar: both are developed linearly, until at a certain point, following an algorithm written in the genetic code of the plant, they split, bifurcate, or are tripled, growing in space with a progress which will be sensitive to obstacles of soil or climatic conditions of the place. The drawing of the bare branches and of the roots, flattened by the simplicity of a pattern in pencil, creates an embroidery, an imaginary warping which can be generated countless times, always different.

These original paintings are available for sale at the price of 265 US$ each one. Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, the costs of the expedition or the availability for work on graphics.

Memory of Venice

(original sold)

MEMORY OF VENICE. From the series “Houses on the water”, oil on paper, 50 x 37 cm, 2016.

When, in my holidays, I go to visit a seaside town or a river town, it often happens that I am involved into the classic tourist trip on the boat, or vessel. Such an experience, by definition, is a little superficial: the distance from the coast, the movement, the limited time, all these elements combined together make the perception confused. But at the same time, perhaps for the fact that the focus can not dwell deeply on anything specific, the end of this experience gives a reminder of the whole, that could reveal the spirit of that place. It 's true, the details are confused, the facades of the buildings overlap, we are no longer sure if the front of that palace was on the Grand Canal or the Giudecca, but probably at the end of the journey, that will remain our most intense memory of Venice.

Little withered trees

"Withered trees", oil and pencil on paper. 21 x 15 cm, 2014.

The structure of a tree is simple and curious: some ramifications in the air to catch the light, some branching underground to pick up the food. But branches and roots are similar: both are developed linearly, until at a certain point, following an algorithm written in the genetic code of the plant, they split, bifurcate, or are tripled, growing in space with a progress which will be sensitive to obstacles of soil or climatic conditions of the place. The drawing of the bare branches and of the roots, flattened by the simplicity of a pattern in pencil, creates an embroidery, an imaginary warping which can be generated countless times, always different.

The first of these paintings has already been sold. The last three paintings are still available for sale at the price of 90 US$ each one. Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, the costs of the expedition or the availability for work on graphics.

The drawings of the crazy

“The drawings of the crazy”, oil and pencil on paper, 38 x 38 cm, 2010.

In the museum of criminology in Turin are kept the drawings made by people who were once imprisoned in mental hospitals. Often in these drawings appears a chilling pattern made of geometries and symmetries, a sort of cage or prison made ​​of dense colored lines, arranged strictly within a rigid structure of compositional rules. It 's a bit like if those people were not only locked up against their will, but perceived in their head and their thoughts another prison, another cage, and with these drawings were able to represent it, with a dense overwhelming decoration. The affinity of these works with Buddhist mandalas is curious. In one case we associate these works with the idea of ​​meditation and stillness, in the other we are dealing with a mirror of anguish and despair. But the border between the two worlds seems to be fragile.

These paintings are available for sale at the price of 90 US$ each one. Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, the costs of the expedition or the availability for work on graphics.

Orange flowers

Oil on paper, 21 x 15 cm, 2009. These original paintings are available for sale at the price of 90 US$ each one. Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, the costs of the expedition or the availability for work on graphics.

https://www.federicocortese.com/