| GIOVANNI TRUNCELLITO |
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| text by Giovanni Bollea |
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Giovanni Truncellito is an artist who
paints with extraordinary complexity, interpretive quality and wide chromatic spectrum.
His paintings present a common denominator, the expression of eros in its various forms.
His painting is glorious. The sun absorbs you with the most splendid tones of yellow so
full of erotic power that it accentuates the most intimate passions and strongest
emotions. The game between the two characters in "In questa Reggia" and "In
Principio" lead to the symbolism of eros. The magnetic eye of the man, so detached
and sad, explains many things. A mysterious magnetism is created between the two
characters. The looks, the robes, the pose of one confronts that of the other and they
exchange a seductive ambiguity. The "Sogno d'estasi", of the sleeping woman,
with her arm abandoned in air, who veils the dialectic exchange between architecture and
nature, intended as the result of a dream. The woman is represented in her maternity,
imagined and desired. The artist is subjugated by the beauty of women. In fact the faces
of his women characters are far more beautiful that those of the men, they are wonderful.
In "Dolce e calmo" the woman's face is full of light and maternal beauty. There
is a dependence on the maternal figure, of the mother-earth which noted in many
particulars of his painting. In "Il Belcanto" the young man who rides the
rearing horse has a feminine face and a masculine body. The strength of the horse
dominates the artistic space, whilst the young man who represents the universal force of
harmony dominates the brute force of the horse which emerges from a newly desecrated
fissure. The Orfeo of "Algida voce" who descends, twirling in the air among a
civilisation represented by architecture crumbling into emptiness and a variety of radiant
suns, represents positivity and negativity, the man who does not intend to give in to the
emptiness and battles among salvation and condemnation, between the explosion of nature
and implosion of civilisation. During his fall, he is attracted by a source of light which
brings him to his death, in hell. "Soglia d'amore" is a powerful painting where
the relationship between the two main characters is dominated by a force, the Entity
overturned, in a gesture of power over the world. The great cosmic force which holds the
two characters overcomes and dominates them. At the same time the gesture of the arm gives
them the strength to communicate. One hand holds them and reassures them whilst the other
admonishes them and obliges them to conversation, to life. Even "Medea" goes
towards the unknown. The wall which dominates her represents the unknown, the
impossibility to converse. Truncellito needs these escapes from reality. In his pictures
there is often a fissure, penetration. This can be noted in "Interludio" with
those fissures in the turret penetrated by the spiralling arrow. The house, symbol of
calmness and peace is the sign of a guaranteed maternity or the impossibility of
maternity? The feminine figure dominates the whole picture and its eros. All women are
mothers. Maternity, so motherly in "Diva Terra" from where the whole world is
born and grows, is a clear message that leads us back to the roots of our being. The
artist however has a delicate and refined sentiment, and performs with uncommon elegance.
There is never anything vulgar in his paintings even when he lets himself indulge in
excessiveness, determined by his symbolism saturated by a unique and rare complexity. The
masculine figure has embodies the Jungean anima and soul in a sort of parity. The eyes and
expression of the male characters both have the components in a mixture that basically
represent their being. Truncellito is however a man who always needs the basics of the
maternal woman, the start of the world. From her and above her the dense, enveloping
universe is born and grows and is so often depicted in his paintings. When he interprets
Medea or Orfeo or when he represents the great force which dominates, there is a
revelation of an uncommon pictorial knowledge and formal complexity. Nothing is left to
chance. The construction of the painting shows a eurhythmy and severity which denounce his
architectural studies. It is the fruit of a combination of vision and meditation. In
"Sonno d'estasi" everything seems to be present. Both the town life and the
fantasy of nature are found in this painting, in a sort of sublime dialectic opposition
between nature and architecture. This mythical, onieric world of ecstasy is an element of
his present day paintings, but he anticipates something much stronger in which the eros
will always be present, intended as an element of life. In the myth of eros there is his
entire world. Giovanni Truncellito travels an extremely vast pictorial journey, stopping
many times to delve on this subject which is the main thread of his philosophy of life. It
is of no use attempting to classify his art as symbolist or other specific form. The
ambiguity of the eros and the tranquillity emerging from the maternal figures, apparently
in contrast, determine the two poles of his life. He is a sweet dreamer, a Jungean man
whose anima and soul cohabitate in parity and are the basis of his internal tranquillity.
It is the moment in which psychological personality of a person becomes art. This happens
easily in literary autobiographies, but rarely happens to an artist. If he resists in
time, as I believe he will, is his work actually a moment in passing or an arrival point?
Will we have other artistic works similar in theme or will his equilibrium, this dream of
Jung parallelism between anima and soul take over and become no longer idyllic but ever
more turbulent. When an artist makes you think a lot then his work is definitely good
especially if combined with an extraordinary chromatic quality and brush capability, not
so common in the artistic sensitivity and creativity of today's artists. There is an inner
fire in his creativity, which dominates an eros which is expressed in his art. The finest
work is in fact "Medea" which goes towards the incognito with a voice that the
others are not able to hear, because they are on the other side of the wall of mystery.
Yet the message is clear and direct. |
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