CRAC Puglia in Taranto hosts the exhibition “Landscapes”, featuring works by Aldo Damioli and Giovanni Pulze, curated by Roberto Vidali, and simultaneously welcomes the donation of thirty works that Juliet Association is delivering to the CRAC archives, on the occasion of the celebrations for “JULIET 45 YEARS”. The exhibition compares two Italian painters with figurative and conceptual approaches, whose thinking extends beyond the surface of the painted canvas.
Aldo Damioli, “Venezia New York”, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cm, courtesy the Artist
The underlying theme that unites these two artists focuses on the role their work has played in the painting of the new millennium and the relationship between their pictorial process and the history of art, as if to finally confirm that the wave of the Transavanguardia not only has not passed in vain, but also that painting throughout the twentieth century has never been an abandoned practice. Neglected by some critics, perhaps, forgotten in many exhibitions, perhaps, yet never abandoned by so many artists who have produced exquisite, counter-trend works. Think of Freud and Bacon, Immendorff and Baselitz, Stefano Di Stasio and Neo Rauch, to name just a few high-profile names. Upon closer inspection, Damioli’s most obvious connections are with the sober painting of Canaletto and the ironic methods of John Currin, while for Pulze, the immediate reference is to Monet’s impressionist smudge, the late “Water Lilies”, and the media painting theorized by Gabriele Perretta.
Aldo Damioli, “Venezia New York (notturno)”, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 40 cm, courtesy the Artist
Both are meticulously executed works, playing on detail and form, perspective and whimsy, intended as inspirations capable of providing a pretext for invention and escapism, as well as a compelling and compelling narrative, a comprehensible narrative that speaks to the heart and the eye. This means that these works do not simply speak the language of photographic realism, but also draw on the hooks of fantasy and invention, turning to simple pretexts to demonstrate how painting can be both forgery and intuitive inspiration, and resulting from the assembly of incongruous parts, which, to be modern, must also be intrinsically conceptual.
Giovanni Pulze, “San Francisco Angel”, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm, courtesy the Artist
And Damioli’s painting is conceptual precisely because for decades the titles of his landscape cycles have evoked (or indicated) something that isn’t there or isn’t represented: for example, in his canvases, the city of Venice (although indicated in the title) is only evoked by comparison with New York or another city (be it Paris, Beijing or Trieste), just to give the impression that while much can be said, everything cannot (or should not) be shown. The corollaries or completions of these paintings are then defined by marginal human presences or by the vitality of vessels that are completely implausible in the contexts in which they are projected. And this is to speak simultaneously of verisimilitude (i.e., the ability to convince) and of imbalance, that is, of something that doesn’t correspond to the truth, but only the shadow of truth: Plato’s pictorial cave.
Antonio Sofianopulo, “Ritornai per un’altra strada”, 2000, pencil on paper, 26.5 x 41.5 cm, Project for Juliet, work published in Juliet n 101, Feb 2002, courtesy Juliet. Work donated to CRAC Puglia of Taranto
The underlying theme of all Pulze’s paintings is, instead, that of the metropolitan angel, understood as a bridge between the world of silence and that of the spoken word, that is, an impossible dialogue between the selfish assertion of the self and the needs of a community or a nature prostrated by the omnivorous predatory activity of man. The backdrop for this angel is a frenetic city where people rush by, cars whizz by, neon signs and billboards dazzle. Ultimately, it conveys a message about incommunicability, the lack of dialogue, and the propensity for solitude.
Gabriele Turola, “King Kong e Superman nella città delle parole”, 2004, tempera on paper, 23.5 x 33 cm, courtesy Juliet. Work donated to CRAC Puglia of Taranto
The scenic backdrops of this non-dialogue are part of a modern city, whether generically indicated by billboards, speeding cars, neon signs, or skyscrapers, or whether recognizable in the silhouettes of certain buildings, intended as a tribute to the city that hosts his works. And the city could be Salzburg or San Francisco, New York or Brussels. Which is to say, the Angel incorporates every place or appears in every place; all to open a dialogue to which only the children and dogs respond, the only ones who notice his presence and look at him.
Enrico T. De Paris, nine preparatory drawings for “Zone d’ombra”, 2024, courtesy Juliet. Work donated to CRAC Puglia of Taranto
Ultimately, the poetics of these two artists goes against the ideological and material harshness advocated first by Marcel Duchamp and later by Joseph Beuys, in opposition to the postulates of the neo-avant-gardes that led to the dissemination of language as well as the deprivation of the centrality of aesthetic experience. This does not mean disavowing the disruptive force of the historical avant-gardes or anything else that emerged on the Western horizon during the 1950s and 1960s; more simply, it points to the possibility of another path, one that finds in the diversity of Balthus, Francis Bacon, and Sean Landers the raison d’être of a fragmented and diversified modernity.
Bruno Sain
Info:
AA.VV., Paesaggi e donazione Juliet
29/04/2026 – 29/05/2026
CRAC Puglia
c.so V. Emanuele II n 17, Taranto
www.cracpuglia.it
is a contemporary art magazine since 1980
NO COMMENT