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Silvio
Cattani (Trento, 1947) graduated in
lithography in Urbino and in painting
at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts.
His artistic exploration started in
the late sixties in Venice where he
frequented the studios of Lucio Andrich,
Emilio Vedova, Fabrizio Plessi and of
other artists. At the Il Traghetto gallery
he exhibited with the artist Gino Di
Pieri and his engravings were part of
national graphic art exhibitions.
In 1968, he won a design prize of the
Opera Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice with
a series of drawings on photosensitive
paper, images projected onto emulsified
supports having been elaborated graphically
and pictorially.
His first exhibition in Trento was in
1968. He presented a series of lithographs
Teoria di gruppo in the exhibition Unopiusei
curated by Luigi Lambertini and set
up the rooms of the Palazzo Pretorio.
Even in these first lithographic works,
a dialectic was seen between form and
marking, geometry and emotional states
as well as a strong chromatic value:
all characteristics constant in the
artistic work of Cattani. Its references
are the fantastic work by Klee, Feininger
and the lyrical dream of Licini, looking
at the works of Novelli and Twombly.
1968-1979. The first exhibitions in
Trentino The 1968, year of his participation
in a group show Unopiusei, marked the
start of a long involvement by the artist
in group and solo shows in Trentino.
In 1971, with a new series of lithographs,
Cattani participated in the exhibition
L’incisione trentina dalle origini
ai nostri giorni at the Palazzo della
Regione curated by Luigi Lambertini
and Nicolò Rasmo. Even in these
early pieces, the importance that the
forms in the space assume is noted:
either geometric or informal or even
fantastic and dreamy. With figurative
references, they are solidly fixed to
the supports, creating a real story
of the imaginary, suggesting an interpretation
beyond the markings.
In the work of 1974 In viaggio con Luzio,
Indian ink on paper, all the distinctive
elements of the artist are found: the
markings which powerfully incise the
paper, telling us a story through a
sequence made up of little squares.
The range of the figures comes close
to the idea of an articulated tale,
like some prehistoric markings which
together suggest a plot developing.
The same year he participated in Situazione
artisti trentini, a group show at the
Palazzo Pretorio in Trento. It represented
another step of his exploration into
innovation in the Trentino art scene
which he had begun with the exhibition
Unopiusei. From 1972 to 1975, the artist
taught graphic design and was involved
in cultural heritage. In 1976, he became
an instructor of painting at the Istituto
Statale d’Arte in Trento, which
he would then run from 1984 onwards.
In 1987, he founded the Institute of
Art Fortunato Depero in Rovereto where
today he is still director.
The artist places his dynamic and innovative
commitment in the creative-didactic
field side by side with his artistic
activity which sees him appearing more
frequently in national and international
events.
1980-1989. Towards new techniques
In the eighties, Cattani developed a
particular interest for old materials
such as glass and ceramics: he worked
for the glassmaker Nason in Murano and
in ceramic workshops in Faenza and Macerata.
Working in close collaboration with
the artisans, this led to the production
of a varied series of pieces and stained-glass
windows using innovative technical solutions.
They are often works of large dimensions,
made up of forms which compose a completeness,
yet still present the idea of narrative
scansion.
The image which results is often the
product of poetic inspiration. In fact,
literary references are an integral
part of his pictorial works: often words
are included in the composition, spurring
the viewers to interpret the always
untitled suggestions.
Similar to his research into markings
and words, Cattani edited the serigraph
print series Fin dove naviga il pesce
luna, with the text by Mauro Neri in
1988 and Hercules.
Another of Cattani’s strengths
is his ability to show us the possible
combinations of literature and art,
in the interweaving of the suggestions
from words with colour-markings which
indicate evocative parallel courses.
Always open to new ideas, he experiments
with techniques of weaving and textile
collages with the creation of marvellous,
colourful tapestries (made by his wife
Anna) using part of the same idea developed
in the early 1900s by Fortunato Depero.
Since 1984 he has experimented with
different techniques on paper, able
to elaborate the markings, the fundamental
element in his exploration in different
ways:features as light as a fleeting
dream, others are heavier, as if there
was the wish within the fables of the
artist to touch on the memories which
everyone deposits in his mind, from
the vaguest to the hardest to erase.
Also colour is used in different ways
and with different meanings.
From practically bichrome art works
– like Sedici balconi su Place
Vendome in 1988, created mainly in black
and white with hints of blue, red and
purple – to true explosions of
colour like in the works Omaggio a Schönberg
and Alle tage which require a gradual
interpretation to be able to identify
the references in defined forms, objects
or recognisable figures. A pictorial
magma from which these references to
reality emerge and open up even more
possibilities of interpretation.
In 1989 Cattani widened his artistic
horizons exhibiting in Bielefeld (Galerie
Jesse) and in Salzburg (Traklhaus) presented
by Danilo Eccher.
1990-1999. An art which narrates
In the nineties, he continued his pictorial
exploration tending towards the use
of paper which he works on with collage,
frottage and with the combination of
different modules in apparent contrast
yet which in reality combine with each
other. Thinking about some works of
1993 like Nel giardino di Telc and Nella
stanza, we can see that the artist develops
a narrative whole in sequence like photograms
of a film.
On the other side however, the landscapes
of his double images, made up of a positive
(light background) and a negative (dark
background), want to speak to us about
a world and an anti-world, about an
image and its reflection. All of the
pieces of this series came together
in the exhibition Identità at
the Circolo degli Artisti in Faenza
from 1993 to 1994.
In the years to follow, Cattani had
exhibitions in Rome, Catania, Bari,
Rovereto as well as in Germany, Paris,
Lille and at the San Josè Museum
of Contemporary Art in Costa Rica. The
year after, the important itinerant
exhibition Meditazioni Blu was presented
in Dortmund at the Museum am Ostwall
and in the Republic of San Marino at
the Galleria di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
(texts by Ingo Bartsch).
This series of art works came about
through a careful interpretation of
Alexei Jawlensky “meditations”
which encourage the artist to elaborate
a route of chromatic deepening into
colour, based on the almost exclusive
use of blue combined with graphite.
The result is an uninterrupted minimal
sequence of pictures in pointed arch
forms (mandorla) enclosed by iron frames.
These innovative art works were presented
at Lineart in Gent in Belgium and at
the Sindoni gallery in Asiago, introduced
in catalogue by Luigi Lambertini.
The artist’s journey continues,
and you could say that it goes from
earthly visions to beyondearthly visions
of life. Regarding Cattani’s work,
Ingo Bartsch writes about the coming
together of “interiority and exteriority,
so difficult to reconcile today, the
reactions of the psyche compared to
the crudeness of the material reality”.
On the same line are the works Le nostre
divinità, on large forms of paper,
exhibited for the first time in Fellbach
in 1999.
In the same year, Silvio Cattani was
involved in theatre, doing the stage
design for two opera by the producer
Paolo Valerio: Fassade presented in
Paris, Verona, Venice, Rome, Naples,
Palermo and Il gatto con gli stivali
(ovvero Il marchese dei turaccioli),
presented in Verona, Trento, Naples
and Rovereto.
2000-2008. Public works and recent exhibitions
Today he is a consolidated and well-known
artist in Italy and abroad. Since 2000,
Sivio Cattani has held a number of solo
and group shows while continuing his
work in theatre, realizing for the musical
festival “Atelier Lirique”
by Tourcoing, the new stage design for
Fassade.
This period sees the planning of public
art works where he experimented the
use of various combinations of materials
which are well-suited to the large spaces
indicated by these forms in iron, mosaic
and glass. Between 2002 and 2003, the
artist was involved in many areas: on
the one hand in the decoration of closed
spaces like the nursery school in Revò,
the rest homes in Avio and Mezzocorona,
the new Ministerial offices of the Autonomous
Province of Trento; on the other, creating
a large mosaic work for the area near
the entrance of the Centro Sportivo
in Albiano. And even two sculptures
in steel and glass for the new faculty
of engineering at the University of
Trento, which incorporate forms in multicoloured
fusion glass; in particular in the work
for the Autonomous Province of Trento
the shiny metal surface and the transparency
of the blue-toned glass combine perfectly
creating a vital aesthetic presence
and light in the surroundings, winning
the attention of the viewers.
The mosaic of Albiano also plays on
the idea of light. Silvio Cattani decided
to use a material connected to the characteristics
of the location: the porphyry with which
he adorns the walls destined to host
the work. In this ample field of materials,
inside the irregular forms in cor-ten,
he creates large mosaic backgrounds:
images which suggest figurations and,
in a non-latent way, allow the discovery
of suggestions and traces of the memories
and presences of the territory.
Cattani has a full command of the use
and harmonious union of different materials,
without ever betraying the other fundamental
aspects of his work – the colour,
the light, the narration and the desire
to represent elements of everyday life.
In 2003, Silvio Cattani was called to
represent in an exhibition, organized
at the Museo d’Arte Moderna e
Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto,
the artistic situation in Trentino alongside
other artists.
Over the next two years, he exhibited
at the fortress in Kufstein (L’eredità
dei profeti) and at the Galleria Tadino
6 in Milano (Prendere la via del bosco),
where he presented new works in large
format which suggest the theme of ambivalence
and complexity. In 2007, the artist
decided to “explain”, after
years of research, Che forma ha il mondo
(Which form has the world) according
to his vision, through the exhibition
of the same name organized by Studio
53 Arte in Rovereto, presented in catalogue
by Claudio Cerritelli, Ingo bartsch
and Maurizio Scudiero.
Finally, with the most recent exhibition
Meteore at the beginning of 2008 at
the Libreria Bocca in Milano, the artist
went back to the origins of his artistic
exploration presenting a series of tiles,
graphite mosaics, created in the artistic
workshop of the Cooperativa Ceramica
in Imola.
The exhibition was born out of suggestions
connected to a journey in Tessaglia,
to discover these ancient and isolated
monasteries, the Meteore, which to the
artist are powerfully evocative and
led him to the creation of a number
of ceramic pieces in the form of a stele,
as if to walk again the paths of meditation
and inner searching.
Essential bibliography
G.
Belli, L. Serravalli, Cattani, Giongo,
Vitturini, exh. cat.
(MART/Archivio del ‘900, Rovereto
(TN), 1989), Rovereto (TN) 1989.
G. Belli, L. Serravalli, Cattani, exh.
cat. (Galerie im Traklhaus, Salzburg,
1989), Trento 1989.
L. Lambertini, Silvio Cattani, exh.
cat. (Galleria Sindoni, Asiago, 1995),
Rovereto (TN) 1995.
I. Bartsch, B. Bandini, Silvio Cattani.
Blaue Meditationen, exh. cat.
(Museum am Ostwall,
Dortmund, 1995), Faenza 1995.
AA.VV., Silvio Cattani. Mescolanze,
exh. cat. (Assozation Bergmann, Fellbach,
1998), Fellbach 1998.
G. Belli, Smarrirsi nel colore, Trento
2001.
M. Scudiero (a cura di), Arte trentina
del ‘900. 1950-1975, exh. cat.
(Palazzo Trentini, Trento,
2001), Trento 2001.
AA.VV., Situazioni. Trentino Arte 2003,
exh. cat. (MART, Rovereto (TN), 2003),
Milano 2003.
L. Lambertini, I colori della pietra,
Rovereto (TN) 2005.
AA.VV., Silvio Cattani. Che forma ha
il mondo, exh. cat. (Studio 53 Arte,
Rovereto (TN), 2007), Rovereto (TN)
2007.
L. Lambertini, Silvio Cattani. Meteore,
exh. cat. (Libreria Bocca, Milan, 2008),
Rovereto
(TN) 2008.
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