A journey to Italy

A journey to Italy, Alba

From the series “Code”, oil on paper, 35 x 35 cm.

The European travelers who made the grand tour in Italy in the nineteenth century, brought back home, in their drawings and memories, a romantic, bucolic, partly false image of the country. They started the journey with a predefined idea and expected to find that, so they were able to see ancient ruins in idyllic landscapes, ignoring the poverty and misery surrounding them. In the same way the map of a city can become a plot of memories or even the falsification of memories. There will be in that map some gaps, or forgotten parts, and parts that we remember as we would like them to have been and not for how they really were. The map can become a personal and intimate diary, where we record our experiences. That map can even become the abstract representation of the ideal life we would have liked to live, a melancholic outline of our regrets and broken dreams.

 

A journey to Italy, Alassio

A journey to Italy, Abriola

A journey to Italy, Accadia

Carpets

“Carpets”, oil on paper, 20 x 60 cm, 2018.

These paintings are made with a thick texture of thin lines, and they want to remember, in the form and appearance, the patient and methodical work of weaving with the loom. The drawing comes out from the plot of crossed wires. The repetitive and automatic work becomes almost a mantra, a prayer.

“Rorschach”, oil on paper, 65 x 50 cm, 2018.

The Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach, invented the famous inkblots, to put into practice a therapeutic form in which a patient, observing these apparently indefinite forms, could create associations or interpretations, from which the analysis of the psychological disorders can begin. Often my work is criticized because it is too defined, too precise, too detailed. This accuracy would take away any possible action to the imagination of the observer. This reasoning has always made me smile a little, and each time reminds me of the Rorschach blots, which in reality were not indefinite, but on the contrary sharp and precise, and allowed to generate associations only because these associations are already inside the mind of the patient, or in general, of the observer. The interpretation of a work is not made possible by its indeterminacy. It depends only on the culture of the viewer, on the books he has read, on the films he has seen, on the paintings he has observed, and this generates his ability to see cross-references between things.

Abandoned room with the Mole Antonelliana

An original piece from the series "Abandoned rooms", oil on canvas. 40 x 70 cm, 2018. Original sold.

This series of paintings was inspired by the metaphysical landscapes of De Chirico. I have always been fascinated by their clear vision of the architecture, with the precise design of the shadows, almost anticipating the modern use of three-dimensional modeling software. In the way I feel, however, more introverted and almost unsociable, the outer space is transformed into a closed one, private and protected, from which the human presence is totally gone away. In those rooms then, it may happen that some strange objects and some unexpected decorations appear, suggesting that the person who lives there has overcome the lack of relationship to the outside world with the richness and complexity of his inner world.

Berlin Alexanderplatz

(original sold)

Berlin Alexanderplatz. Three paintings from the series “Windows”, oil on wood panel, 35 x 25 cm.

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?

The landfill of Turin

An original piece from the series “The earth seen from the space”, oil on canvas. 50 x 40 cm, 2017.

Original painting sold.

The first time I used Google Earth was fantastic. I could not believe that someone had photographed
the entire planet, and that the exploration of this world was accessible to all. Browsing by chance
I discovered amazing scenery, looking at the city streets from far away I could accomplish
wonderful virtual travels. I discover unexpected color blends at the mouths of the rivers or along
the coast of the sea, shades that make uncertain the border between land and water. The cultivated
fields create a dense mosaic of colors. The view from a great distance reduces the details and makes
possible a new form of representation of the landscape. Basically, the only thing that is changed is
the point of view.

Brasilian Carnival

CARNIVAL - from the series “Please do not kill butterflies”, pins and oil on paper, 34 x 47 cm, 2017. ORIGINAL SOLD.

http://www.federicocortese.com/2017/11/02/new-butterflies-in-town/