| NICOLA DE MARIA Paintings 1996 | |
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25 June - 14 August 1998 | |
 Nicola De Maria was born in Foglianise in Italy on 6 December 1954 and he lives in Turin. | |
 Piemonte, 1996/ Oil on canvas/ 50 x 40 cm |
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Nicola De Maria is a sensitive protagonist of a
type of painting which creates the world anew; an artist and poet
who conjures up, through intimation, paradises that are non-existent
on earth, full of joie de vivre, ease and vitality. The reality of
his pictures, full of power and yet, at the same time emotional landscapes
and heads, mobilizes our latent power of imagination and triggers
off that fiction that only art can create a spiritual reality. (Peter Baum) The accompanying catalogue provides a perspective on the early phase of the total output of the artist who was born in Foglianise in 1954 and still lives in Italy. The exhibition commences in the Neue Galerie of the City of Linz Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Vaduz (20.11. - 31.1.1999), will also be presented by the Obalne Galerije: Mestna Galerija Piran and the Galerija Loza Koper (19.2. -13.4.1999). |
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 Mattino con la Primavera, 1996 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 cm |
 Western mistico, 1996 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 cm |
| Poetical approach to the inner reality
Commentary on the new paintings by Nicola De Maria It is constantly revitalising and painting that remains faithful to its substance, full of ease and optimism, joie de vivre and vitality that Nicola de Maria, for many years, has been projecting to his public, to their constant surprise and delight. His new, small format paintings (many of which originated in 1996) are the quintessence of what has already been said. They embody painting, pure and fine in their radiant power of colour and their material structure, which emanate a directness that excludes other possibilities; form is both simple as well as complex, in what is often referred to as less than trendy mediums. Nicola De Maria is a sensitive protagonist of a type of painting , which creates the world anew; an artist and poet who conjures up, through intimation, paradises non-existent on earth, full of joie de vivre, ease and vitality. The reality of his pictures, these very powerful and, at the same time emotional landscapes and heads, mobilise our latent power of imagination and trigger off that fiction that only art can create a spiritual reality. The artist provides the art, as its basis, with an elongated field of action. Nicola De Maria's art is both overt and definite: definite, in the sense that it is dominated by precision, by one who knows and whose obedience to high aesthetic claims is, however, open in its breadth of approachability, in its ability to spontaneously engage the observer in a dialogue, without pretence and limitations. This is expressed, not in content, but solely and specifically through the organisation, the reality of the picture and the claims which derive from it.Just as music, so also painting, reaches into the substance of the human being, which touches the centre of the human, which is sui generis, the existential centre. The work of art becomes the measure of a universal, all-comprehensive and not a simply empirical realisation that is directed towards reflection. The powerful application of pasted colour, such as Nicola de Maria practices, bursts through the limitation of the chosen formats. The composition is continued over and beyond the picture frames, in an irregular manner, being opened up on all sides and it submits itself to the observer, without any intermediate obstacles. In this sense, every painting can be regarded as an excerpt of the whole, a metaphore for growth and extinction. In view of its spiritualising elements in nature and not due to any representation of tangible images, we can talk about lyricism, poetry and chamber music. The artist who works in Turin, embodies a new Mediterranean painting, which introduces a renaissance by foregoing dependency on post-modern style, which we, in an art historical context know from the basis of that which can be derived from the balance of impressionist and expressionist basic principles. There is an incomparable elation in Nicola de Maria's paintings which touches us more profoundly that can be presumed from a rapid and superficial glance towards the horizon of a well-tempered landscape. All these small and dense high format compositions are held together by a very personal characteristic style and rhythm. It leaps from the overlapping horizontal bands and colour fields and tension loaded colour patches which have been inserted and which melt into one another to form a unity. The practice of the artist, between painting and drawing, is the poetical acknowledgement for the rediscovery of the world, drawing towards a visual closeness. It is analogous to a large and staged festival, consisting of constantly new impulses; it avoids simple, dry means and stringent calculus, as well as a baroque overcrowding. Nicola de Maria's chamber music, his vigorous joy in improvisation, adequately used within the given framework are acquiring, in this manner, the characteristics of a message, which is both complex and simple, at the same time, and which touches our emotions, as well as our intellect. Peter Baum |
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| Opening Times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10.00 am - 6.00 pm, Thursday 10.00 am - 10.00 pm, Saturday 10.00 am -1.00 pm Sunday closed |
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