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Painter and Sculptor - artist of the 20th-century Italian art scene
Video interview 2023:
The artist Aristide Gattavecchia is introduced by his nephew Marco, on the occasion of the interview given to Dr. Leonarda Zappulla, critic, curator and art promoter, student of Prof. Vittorio Sgarbi.
2021 Interview given to De Agostini on the occasion of inclusion in the Atlas of Contemporary Art
WHAT KIND OF POETICS IS DEALT WITH IN THE WORKS (FIELDS OF INVESTIGATION AND RESEARCH)?
Aristide Gattavecchia dealt with powerful themes such as violence (war), incommunicability, and solitude.
And also the themes of a society that changes rapidly and does not know how to face and organize changes appropriately: ecology, saving, consumerism.
And finally, themes that are more relevant than ever, such as homosexuality and discrimination.
He investigated the human soul, pushing himself to the rawest and most intimate observation.
His research led him to very precise choices on the palette, representing the psychosis of fear with bright red tones and the contours of bodies or objects with bold, black brushstrokes.
Being also a sculptor, his paintings are often transformed into sculptures and are influenced by the representative power of sculpture, which has no color but all the chromatic variations from white to black.
WHAT EXPERIENCES OR BIOGRAPHICAL EVENTS HAVE MARKED AND INFLUENCED HIS ARTISTIC ACTIVITY?
The paintings produced by the artist in his long life clearly show the events that influenced all his production. The first works from 1947-1948 appear marked by the pain and terror of war, when he was in the prime of his youth and those events broke something inside him that would never be repaired. Then follow paintings of serene domestic environments (“Sails”, “Blue Vase” “Green Corner”), but there are also returns to red tones and female figures marked by suffering (“Leda” 1950) Even the landscapes of his beloved Cesena are tormented by gray and dark skies with little reassuring white gashes (“Over the City” 1953). The 1960s, the boom years, would greatly influence Gattavecchia’s art. He would become increasingly intrigued by novelties, enthusiasm for life, and the desire to leave everything behind (“The Bouquet” 1960, “Still Life” 1962, “On the Beach” 1965) even though from time to time the ghosts of the past would return with dark and undefined figures (“Intrusions” 1962, “The Gaze” 1962). The production of the 1970s reflects the overwhelming social changes underway and themes that are still relevant today appear, such as consumerism where houses “vomit” superfluous objects (“Modern Times I” 1971) and that of waste (“Modern Times II” 1971) where garbage accumulates outdoors in arid spaces. The landscapes appear more serene, but still represented in conditions of a muffled yellow light, as if by a kind of melancholy (“II Savio” 1975). The influences on his artistic activity also involve materials. The artist in those years would temporarily abandon canvas to paint on plastic. He would also be influenced by the consequences of the ferment that the art world was experiencing, thanks to the speed with which ideas, information, and culture were exchanged. Another dominant theme in Gattavecchia’s art is that of incommunicability. Society has profoundly changed. From life on the street, when “everyone knew each other” and helped each other, it has moved to life inside locked houses, where everyone thinks of their own selfishness. And so paintings like “Indifference” and “Enigma” from 1979 are born, in which faces do not communicate, mouths do not speak, eyes do not look. Each character is closed in on themselves and avoids any communicative approach. Themes that are still relevant! The paintings of the 1980s deal with themes still relevant today such as homosexuality (“The Friends” 1984) and solitude (“Thinking” 1983, “Waiting” 1985, “Solitude” 1987). But the event that shocked the artist, after the Second World War, was the Chernobyl nuclear accident. He would paint “Chernobyl” 1986 and “Radioactive Effect” 1986, in which women and children without hair and without expression are portrayed. They are as if fixed in time, blocked in word and gesture. The yellow or red color makes them unpleasant to look at. There is no joy of youth nor enthusiasm for life. WHAT IS THE MISSION OF ART AND THE ARTIST IN CURRENT TIMES? The artist Gattavecchia launched various messages with his production, above all denunciation. He wanted to spur people to think.
In that period he drew pointed hands, faces like skeletons, and nudes without arms (“Objects” 1948, “Thoughts” 1947, “Thoughts II” 1948).
He would create the abstract paintings “Fragments” 1979.
These are 6 painted works, cut out and then re-glued, through a process of symbolic reconstruction research. The whole is actually made up of different parts, like the intimate essence of a person.
These would be among the last color paintings; afterwards he would use almost exclusively black and white, as if life were too painful to represent in color.
In the paintings of the 1990s, forms and people blend and merge. Are the objects portrayed people or bottles? Can you know what is inside a dark bottle? Can you know what a person hides in their innermost being?
His art wanted to make people reflect, to shock, to awaken from that torpor of living without objectives, without projects, all conformed to the same desires, the same ambitions.
To send a powerful message of developing one's individuality and one's choices.
Cesena - FC - Italy
Painter and Sculptor