A welcome return to the Barga art scene to the painter Mario Madiai this evening with an exhibition of many of his works covering the last 25 years in rooms specially set aside and now named “Sala Madiai” in the Hotel Ciocco located in the hills above Barga. Although known as a Livorno painter, Mario was for many years resident in Barga with the studio in Piazza Angelio.
Mario now lives on a fattoria between Pisa and Livorno where he tends his other great passion – the vines. In fact this evening on the tables were bottles of his latest creation – a red wine called “Malacoda” (Images from the 2008 vendemmia on Mario’s fattoria can be seen here)
Since the early 1970’s, Madiai has enjoyed wide success, and his works have been shown in galleries throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. More recently, paintings of Madiai have been entered in the permanent collection at the “Museum of Modern Art Mario Grimoldi” and museum “Museo d’Arte dello Splendore”. Madiai is among the most recognized and critically acclaimed names of contemporary Italian art, and is considered the last legitimate heir of the elegant and semiabstract art trend “Macchiaioli” indigenous to the city of Livorno.
The continuous and obsessive search of new subjects and methods of expression have been Madiai’s signature throughout his career. Recurring subjects have dominated his output and may be divided into mono-thematic cycles, such as: “Interiors”, “landscapes”, “gardens”, “tables remembered”, and more recently, “The flowers the leaves and the water”, “sunflowers”, and the “roses”.
The same subject, portrayed dozens of times, transformed into real characters, the protagonists of an unexpectedly complex story, are projected like shadows onto varicoloured backgrounds. At times distant, their diffused colour surfaces from a centre point to the scene of light, at other times the shadows advance, partially concealing the image and concentrating it into a vision of ambiguity.
An important and fundamental aspect of Madiai’s work is the technique of creating the background, which he has developed as part of his never satisfied, relentless strive for perfection. After having delineated the details of the painting, Madiai covers everything with a layer of paint, allowing it to drip or to absorb onto the canvas, as his instinctive artistic desire dictates him. As a result, real subjects that may otherwise seem mundane are reinterpreted and filtered by magic atmospheres. – source
Click on the link below to hear the short opening speech at the exhibition this evening.
mario_madiai_25sept2009
Mario’s site can be found here