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CARLO
SALA
Giovanni
Cavazzon, between rigor and irony
The
human figure certainly lies at the center of Giovanni Cavazzon’s
research into painting. A style of painting with many facets,
iconographic references and technical virtuosities. He is one of
the main portraitists of his generation.
Throughout his long
career he has touched upon many themes, but the portrait has been
with him every step of his artistic way. We find tremendous
technical rigour in his figures. There are always two constants in
the features of those portrayed, one is his technique and the
other is the colour. However, these do not have the same intrinsic
value since colour comes with technique. His technique is clear
and defined, at times creating a sfumato and at times a plastic
effect, but without ever losing his composure. There are numerous
techniques present in the works of this artist. We find pure
sketches in black and white pastel, oil paints and the fascinating
mix of graphic arts and sketchings. But we also find a more
detailed process in his tondos. Here he uses a special kind of
transparent paper to paint on which is later glued on to a wooden
panel and then a few finishing touches are added on the other
side. This method creates delicate and highly poetic effects. The
paper is often slightly wrinkled so as to suggest and evoke the
semblance of frescoes.
Even though Cavazzon’s work relies
heavily on portraiture, he does not limit himself to a realistic
vision of the object. Every face is loaded with expression and
this is the key which tells us how this artist probes and
penetrates into the human soul, into the deepest flows and fluxes
of mankind. At times we find the same figure repeated two or three
times in the same work of art, described in different poses and
sometimes with different colours, in order to bring out the
subject’s various moods.
These works are full of symbolism
and references. Never is an object haphazardly added and all is
veiled by a vein of irony and refinement. The painting Sensini and
Family is a good example. The curtain is real. The spectator can
draw it closed so as to cover the image. A new sort of privacy is
created to this family scene through artistic artifice. Even
though the image is exhibited, at the scrutiny of the spectator,
it is also loaded with a feeling of intimacy.
Details always
carry tinged reasons which transcend pure form. The portrait of a
professor of Letters is triplicated adding symbolic references: in
the first picture he is holding a book, a symbol of knowledge; in
one of the other two his bust is sketched with austere taste
reminding us of the representations of the poet (Vate).
Even
his 1993 self-portrait is loaded with artistic eclecticism. The
work is not elegantly framed in, but wrapped in wood and
polystyrene to make it look and feel like a crate. This “creative
game” symbolizes that this work, as others made using this
language, is destined for shipment to future consumers. What makes
this seem a tribute to Arman, the great French artist, is the
brush, also creating an installational effect. This object has a
profoundly different meaning for the two artists. For Arman it
might be a clear example of his ties to the poetics of Nuoveau
réalisme. For Cavazzon it stands as the symbol for the true
artist, tied to manual dexterity, thus placing great importance on
technique, as if he were going against the trend in a world of art
which sadly has turned its back to this trade, in order to impose
its ephemeral pauperties.
This painter’s charm comes out in
full in a few portraits sketched with his pencil only. With an
uncanny technical ability he has created great poetic effects,
rich in depth and trasparency, and full of perspective play.
Contrast between the sketching and the whiteness of the sheet
creates luminous results in the eyes of the characters, making the
chromatism vibrate.
These are living portraits, repudiating
traditional staticity. One feels the touch of a scenographer at
work by the way spectator and portrait meet.
Cavazzon’s
form of art rests on a long tradition of portraiture which goes
back many centuries. Even if some shapes and forms seem to recall
concepts from the "anachronistic" schools of the
twentieth century, they have been surpassed because this artist
has gone beyond. He has modernized an ancient concept of art. He
knows how to use a language with figurative ties, but brimming
over with innovation, and sensitive to modern needs.
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