Vertical Concept by Bruno Biondi

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vertical Conceptsâ&#x20AC;?... even if horizontals.

Paintings from1988to2014.

August 2014. Detail. Sawdust, oil, acrylic and ink on canvas. 250x120 cm

Commissioned Artwork. 2

Thoughts.

As I had never thought about it before now, today I’m realizing how important it is to master the technique and materials I use in my paintings. It is good to make notes and it is good also to photograph all stages of processing. Assimilate as much as possible every kind of experience, as each a painting is different from the previous one and each new painting gives me the opportunity to refine the technique, so that I can always reach what I’ve imagined, dreamed and how I want the painting to appear before signature. The label that says now is exactly what satisfies me and what I wanted. Leaving all this aside, I still ask myself why I’m so attached to the “Vertical Concepts.” There is something hidden in my mind that I do not understand, I only know that those signs, those grooves will be always in my mind, in my imagination, and repeat them endlessly, I will one day, finally, understand their deeper meaning. It is as if canvas after canvas, “Vertical Concept” after “Vertical Concept”, chasing my imaginary, unexpectedly, in a near future, they will magically appear to me crystal clear, and perfectly understandable... ... even if horizontals.

At the Institute of Art where I graduated, I followed the Specialization in Design and Architecture. Unlike my older sister Ombretta, and Sara, the youngest, who had followed the section of Painting, I had never painted. Since my early age I have always drawn a lot, but never painted abstract paintings. Immediately after high school I started to experiment with materials and supports to transform and elevate them to what I considered already by then my art. My idea of artwork. My artistic journey began from those early experiments back in 1988. Today, as then, I feel I have to go deeper and deeper into my creative visions and turn them into paintings... I still have a lot to do and still a lot to learn to feel each my canvas as a really and truly work of art... every canvas that I end it seems to me so incomplete and far from being really mature, yet so perfectible. Bruno.

Milan, 14 September 2014

Milan, 11 October 2014

Published on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Il Quadratoâ&#x20AC;?.

Catalogue second series of 21 Artworks made on Cardboard. Commissioned Artworks.

Catalogue first series of 20 Artworks made on Cardboard. Commissioned Artworks.

Cover

Nel caso di Bruno Biondi non si dovrebbe parlare di scultura o di pittura, ma espressione artistica. Non si dovrebbe parlare di strategie e di correnti, ma solo ed ancora di espressione artistica. La materia, come mezzo esecutivo, non riguarda gli arnesi tradizionali, dalla tavolozza alla spatola, ma la capacità di Bruno biondi di orchestrare gli spazi in senso bidimensionale, o di trattare questa materia all’interno del problema pittura, aiutandolo con altri composti a renderci partecipi di una espressione artistica contemporanea alla vita. La materia è di cartone ondulato. Una materia fragile, mossa dal ritmo e dall’ordine poco prevedibili. I rilievi si piegano in contrappunti chiaroscurali senza inflessioni vistose ma con regolare continuità, perché così vuole la forma iniziale, la forma di nascita che lo fa somigliare ad una lunga scalinata, al mare soffiato dal vento, al cielo con nubi stratificate, ad un grande gregge unito nell’attesa. Così entra in azione Bruno Biondi: con materie che servono a plasmare la materia. L’effetto ci fa osservare forme consuete come se fossero nuove; immagini che sono reali attraverso un’azione che avviene sulla corruttibilità fenomenica della struttura. L’effetto ci porta colori scuri, spesso usati come fondo, che tendono a mettere in risalto una parte centrale. Colori scuri ma lucenti, con canali dove circola l’aria, colori scuri volatili, ma possono essere animati, sono poetici. Sulla superficie robusta righe parallele, verticali ed orizzontali, poi strisce e poi spazi geometrici, vibranti in composizioni equilibrate, quale estrema depurazione dello spazio senza alcuna intrusione narrativa. Nascono così i dipinti di Bruno biondi, non come quadri da appendere ma come progetti, che devono essere valutati caso per caso, interpretati nei particolari, nei composti costituzionali, come nelle varie applicazioni di materie, supporti, collanti, vernici, colori, come nelle antiche botteghe, dove tutto era preparato a mano seguendo precise istruzioni del maestro, perché il risultato non può essere affidato al caso. È il rinnovamento nell’ambito della tradizione. L’arte è tale quando si fa storia, non descrizione di un inutile passato, ma sbocco sul presente, che vuol dire progresso. Arte è quando ti dice com’è il tempo in cui vivi, quando si fa vita. Nascono queste opere di Bruno Biondi quali concentrazioni frementi e distillate, naturali, come contro ogni convenzione e si svincolano dal principio formale creando sensazioni mutanti di volta in volta. Sono l’evidenza di una realtà eccentrica e lineare che solo simbolicamente prende a prestito la materia, per unirla, modularla, facendola divenire prima mistero, poi magia, ed infine elevazione. Elevazione come ipotesi creativa, nuova ipotesi di comunicazione, diverso metodo di impiego di materiali. Non una superficie assolutamente piatta ed infinita, come lo spazio siderale, ma ridimensionata a portata d’uomo. Solcabile come da una navicella, senza prospettiva, come all’inizio della storia della pittura, come un uccello che sfrutta le correnti, come un pastore che conta le sue pecore guardando le groppe lanose. Ma

è anche dinamismo, creazionismo dell’uomo contemporaneo. Non tutto è legato al cartone. Bruno Biondi apre ad elementi frastagliati, centrali ma anche questi modulari. Ne nascono opere con segni emblematici della realtà nello spazio. I moduli abbandonano la superficie per librarsi nello spazio dei loro movimenti frastagliati. Una dinamica d’arte che coinvolge le varie teorie, la condizione della materia, la compressione dei rapporti tra levità ed immanenza. Visioni introspettive con ombre che si dilatano improvvise dal motivo principale, che è un segno inciso sulla faccia piana, lui racchiuso nel ventre a maturare, a generare, crucciato nell’alveolo natio, distinto dal suo colorito pallido, un valore emblematico da astrattismo spaziale, una forma al riparo delle intemperie, dove la caduta fisionomica ha reso più ampio il significato: ossatura in cui è possibile intuire, oltre qualsiasi barriera narrativa, il lampo della poesia. Il giovane artista presenta nell’opera l’icona, l’immagine di quello che è il suo desiderio, il suo futuro divenire, la sintesi intellettiva e immaginativa delle sue speranze, attraverso lo specifico della propria essenzialità e attraverso l’orizzontalità e la verticalità di linee e di campi. Il giovane artista trova il riconoscimento del suo spazio, delle sue architetture, del suo voler essere, dell’io forte, sorgente dalla molteplicità fluttuante di una assordata realtà.Bruno biondi al di là della logica manifesta il suo modo specifico di avvicinarsi all’oggetto del suo interesse. Naturalmente disinteresse per il dato ottico. il vedere per credere. Preferisce una forma di tranquilla fantasia, intellettualmente focalizzata e spogliata, linguaggio interno non parlato sino a raggiungere l’astrazione che si identifichi con la libertà e con tutte le esigenze dell’inconscio collettivo che affliggono il nostro tempo e il nostro benessere. Nelle varie crisi delle avanguardie e nei vari tentativi di riproporle attraverso vari espedienti ed esperimenti, Bruno Biondi, partendo da un materiale comunemente povero, tratta per far propria la coscienza della sua originale freschezza ed elevare l’immaginativo ad essenza, la tenebra a luce, il vedere a stato di grazia. Un David senza fionda, questo artista che nel nero del buio su astratte coordinate di un territorio sconfinato si lancia contro la serialità consumistica, la mistificazione del sentimento, il pagamento del pensiero. Il tutto in nome dell’arte. Auguri Bruno.

Dott. Prof. Giorgio Falossi Milano, 21 Marzo 1999

Paintings from1988to2014.

Internal double pages of the volume: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Il quadratoâ&#x20AC;?.

In the case of Bruno Biondi we should not speak about sculpture or painting, but artistic expression. You should not talk about strategies and art movements, but only and still about artistic expression. Material, as executive tool, does not concern traditional utensils, from the palette to the spatula, but Bruno Biondi ability to orchestrate spaces in two-dimensional sense, or to treat this material within the painting problem, helping him with other compounds to make us partakers of a contemporary artistic expression to life. The material is made of corrugated cardboard. A fragile material, moved by the rhythm and order a little predictable. The reliefs bend in chiaroscuro counterpoint without flashy inflections but with regular continuity, because that is what the initial form wants, the birth of form that makes him looks like a long staircase, the sea blown by the wind, the sky with layered clouds, a large flock united in anticipation. So comes into play Bruno Biondi: with materials that serve to mold material. The effect makes us observe usual forms as if they were new; images that are real through an action that takes place on the corruptibility of the phenomenal structure. The effect brings us dark colors, often used as background, which tend to emphasize a central part of the arworks. Dark colors but bright, with canals where air circulates, various dark colors, from sophisticated gray to compact smoke that cannot be touched, they are volatile, but that can be admired, they are poetic. On the robust surface parallel lines, vertical and horizontal, then strips and then geometric spaces, vibrating in balanced compositions, such as extreme purification of space without any narrative intrusion. This is how the paintings of Bruno Biondi borns, not like artworks to hang but as projects that need to be evalueted case by case, interpreted in details, in the constitutional compounds, as in the various materials applications, supports, adhesives, paints, colors, as in the antique shops where everything was prepared by hand following the precise instructions of the teacher, because the result cannot be left to chance. It is the renewal within the tradition. Art, is such that, when it becomes history, not a description of a useless past, but outlet on the present, so then it means progress. Art is when it tells you how it is the moment in which you live, when it becomes life. These artworks of which quivering and distilled concentrations, Bruno Biondi spring up, natural, as against all convention and they free themselves from the formal principle creating mutants feelings of time to time. They are evidence of an eccentric and linear reality that only symbolically borrows the material, to unite it, modulate it, making it become first mystery, then magic, and finally elevation. Elevation as creative hypothesis, new hypothesis of communication, different method of use of materials. Not a absolutely flat surface and infinite as the sideral space, but resized within reach human. Solcabile as a spacecraft, without prospects, as at the beginning of the history of

painting, like a bird that takes advantage of the current, as a shepherd that counts his sheep looking at the woolly backs. But it is also dinamism, creationism of contemporary man. Not everything is tied to cardboard. Bruno Biondi opens at indented central elements, but even these modular. Born artworks with emblematic signs of reality in the space. The modules leave the surface to free themselves from the space of their jagged movements. A dynamic of art that involves the various theories, the condition of the material, the compression of the relationship between lightness and immanence. Introspective visions with shadows that sudden dilate themselves from the main motive, which is a mark engraved on the flat surface, enclosed in the womb to mature, to generate, grieved positioning in the native, distinguished by its pale, a symbolic value to abstract space, a form protected from the weather, where the fall physiognomy made wider meaning: framework in which you can probably guess, beyond any narrative barrier, the flash of poetry. The young artist is presenting into the opera the icon, the image of what it is his desire, his future progress, the intellectual and imaginative synthesis of his hopes, through the specifics of their essentiality and through the horizontal and the vertical lines and fields. The young artist finds recognition of his space, of his architectures, of his desire to be, of the strong ego, fount like floating multiplicity of a deafened reality. Bruno Biondi beyond the logic manifests its specific way of approaching the object of his interest. Of course uninterested in optical data, seeing to believe. He prefers a form of quiet fantasy, intellectually focused and stripped, internal language not yet spoken until reaching abstraction that is identified with freedom and with all the needs of the collective unconscious which afflict our time and our well-being. In the various crises of the vanguards and the various attempts to revive them again through various expedients and experiments, Bruno Biondi, starting from a commonly poor material, turns darkness into light and seeing into state of grace, to make his conscience about his original freshness, and his imagination, to make them all his own. A David without a sling; this artist that through the black of the dark on abstract coordinates of a boundless territory it is launched against the consumerist seriality, the mistification of feelings, the payment of thought. All in the name of art. Best wishes Bruno.

Dr. Prof. Giorgio Falossi

Milan, 21 March 1999

Quando il cartone non è un pacco, può essere arte. Siani presenta 20 opere di Bruno Biondi su cartone ondulato. Siani e Bruno Biondi. Il cartone a regola d’arte. Proviamo a dire la parola cartone, e penseremo subito a un materiale povero. Una casa di cartone. Una macchina di cartone. Una parete di cartone. Qualcosa di fragile e di poco importante. Sarebbe ora di cominciare a guardare meglio, il cartone. Sarebbe ora di scoprire quanto può essere leggero, robusto, semplice, onesto, pulito, il cartone. E perfino quanto può essere bello, il cartone. Deve aver fatto questa scoperta Bruno Biondi, quando ha deciso di creare queste sue opere su cartone (anzi, di cartone, o anche con cartone). Deve aver scoperto, nel lavorare, incollare e dipingere questo nobilissimo materiale, la sua semplice e commovente bellezza interiore. Una scoperta che adesso è anche nostra. Usando come materia prima diverse qualità di cartone ondulato (ruvido, liscio, grosso, sottile) questo giovane artista milanese ha dato vita a opere dal fascino lineare e selvaggio. La sottile regolarità del cartone è tagliata da segni forti, da linee irregolari, come frutto di un’ultima, delicata violenza. La struttura stessa del cartone è sezionata, saggiata, messa a nudo nei suoi segreti. Il risultato sono queste venti opere di raro equilibrio, di dolce compostezza, di raffinata armonia. Non un monumento al cartone ondulato, non un’elegia, piuttosto una sorta di viaggio, di scoperta, di pudico omaggio a un materiale che mostra a chi lo sa capire la sua segreta e insospettata eleganza. Dr. Fabio Gasparrini Milano, Aprile 1995

Introduzione catalogo 1994-1995.

Myself

Siani

When cardboard is not a pack, can be art. Siani presents 20 artworks of Bruno Biondi on corrugated cardboard.

March 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.11 Tempera and acrylic on wood 35 x 50 cm

Siani and Bruno Biondi. The cardboard in a workmanlike. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say the word cardboard, and we will think immediately to a poor material. An house made of cardboard. A machine made of cardboard. A cardboard wall. Something fragile and unimportant. It is time to start looking better, to the cardboard. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to discover as can be lightweight, rugged, simple, honest, clean, the cardboard. And even how much can be beautiful, the cardboard. He must have made this discovery Bruno Biondi, when he decided to create these works of cardboard (or rather, by cardboard, or even with cardboard). Must have discovered, in working, paste and paint this noble material, its simple and moving inner beauty. A discovery that now it is also ours. Using as raw material different quality of cardboard (rough, smooth, thick, thin), this young artist from Milan gave birth to artworks from wild and linear charm. The subtle regularity of the cardboard is cut by strong signs, from irregular lines, as the result of a final, gentle violence. The structure of the cardboard is disconnected, tested, laying bare its secrets. The result are these twenty works of rare balance of sweet composure, refined harmony. Not a monument to the cardboard, not an elegy, rather a kind of journey, discovery, modest tribute to a material which shows to who can understand his secret and its unexpected elegance.

1994-1995 Catalogue presentation.

Dr. Fabio Gasparrini Milan, April 1995

November 1994 Corrugated cardboard n.1 Tempera and acrylic on wood 70 x 50 cm

December 1994 Corrugated cardboard n.2 Tempera and acrylic on wood 70 x 50 cm

February 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.3 Tempera and acrylic on wood 70 x 50 cm

December 1994 Corrugated cardboard n.4 Tempera and acrylic on wood 70 x 50 cm

February 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.5 Tempera and acrylic on wood 70 x 50 cm

February 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.6 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 70 cm

February 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.7 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 70 cm

February 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.8 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 70 cm

March 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.9 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 70 cm

March 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.10 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 70 cm

March 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.11 Tempera and acrylic on wood 35 x 50 cm

March 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.12 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 35 cm

March 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.13 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 35 cm

April 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.14 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 35 cm

April 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.15 Tempera and acrylic on wood 35 x 50 cm

April 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.16 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 35 cm

April 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.17 Tempera and acrylic on wood 35 x 50 cm

April 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.18 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 35 cm

April 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.19 Tempera and acrylic on wood 35 x 50 cm

April 1995 Corrugated cardboard n.20 Tempera and acrylic on wood 35 x 50 cm

Quando il cartone non è un pacco, può essere arte. Siani presenta 21 opere di Bruno Biondi su cartone ondulato. Siani e Bruno Biondi. Il cartone a regola d’arte. C’era una volta il cartone. Un materiale semplice, usato per gli imballaggi, un contenitore che spesso passa inosservato rispetto al contenuto. Si scarta un pacco, si apre una scatola, poi il cartone finisce chissà dove. Materia che si disperde e la cui sostanza non si apprezza, finisce per essere dimenticata. Ma può avvenire una metamorfosi. Il cartone diventa qualcosa di più di un semplice involucro. Può acquistare un senso proprio in quanto materia plasmabile. Lo ha colto Bruno Biondi che, con queste 21 opere, continua e approfondisce un esperimento già riuscito l’anno scorso: trasformare il cartone attraverso la bacchetta magica della propria sensibilità artistica per riscattarne la sua misteriosa nobiltà. Il cartone infatti si addice incredibilmente alla creatività di questo giovane artista. Di una tela non va sfruttato solo l’aspetto bidimensionale. Si può, usando appunto il cartone ondulato, rendere un quadro tridimensionale. Applicare degli strati e incidere sulla superficie rifacendo con la materia ciò che avviene all’interno dell’animo: uno scavo. L’atto è quello di penetrare “dentro le cose” in una profondità che è sia spaziale che temporale. Non pennellate piatte, non suggestioni di luce e di colore. Biondi gioca con la materia. Ne risulta una ricerca profonda di qualcosa che sta dietro, nel passato, nei ricordi. Conquistare l’ancestrale, la profondità intima di un percorso umano, trasferendo questa esperienza sulla tela. È un’avventura artistica che trasforma l’umile cartone della nostra esperienza quotidiana in un raro mezzo di espressione. E di emozione. 28

Introduzione catalogo 1996.

Dott.ssa Roberta Spadotto Milano, Aprile 1996

When cardboard is not a pack, can be art. Siani presents 21 artworks of Bruno Biondi on corrugated cardboard.

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.11 Mixed media on wood 50 x 88 cm

Siani and Bruno Biondi. The cardboard in a workmanlike. Once upon a time there was the cardboard. A simple material, used for packaging, a container that often goes unnoticed compared to the content. It is discarded a packet, it is opened a box, then the cardboard ends somewhere. Material disperses, and whose substance is not appreciated, it ends up being forgotten. But it can happen a metamorphosis. The box becomes something more than a mere shell. May acquire a proper sense as pliable material. He caught this Bruno Biondi, which with these 21 artworks, continues and deepens an already successful past year experiment: to transform the cardboard through the magic wand of his own artistic sensibility to redeem his mysterious nobility. The cardboard in fact suits incredibly to the creativity of this young artist. Of a painting should not be exploited only the two-dimensional appearance. You can, using just the cardboard, make a three-dimensional picture. Apply layers and affect the surface with redoing with material what happens inside the soul: an excavation. The act is to penetrate â&#x20AC;&#x153;into thingsâ&#x20AC;? in a depth that is both spatially and temporally. Do not brush flat, not suggestions of light and color. Biondi plays with material. The result is a deep search of something behind, in the past, in memories. Conquer the ancestral, the intimate depths of a human journey, transferring this experience to the canvas. It is an artistic adventure that turns the humble cardboard of our everyday experience in a rare means of expression. And emotion.

1996 Catalogue presentation.

Dr. Roberta Spadotto Milan, April 1996

1995 Corrugated cardboard n.21 Mixed media on wood 50 x 88 cm

1995 Corrugated cardboard n.22 Mixed media on wood 88 x 50 cm

1995 Corrugated cardboard n.23 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 88 cm

1995 Corrugated cardboard n.24 Mixed media on wood 50 x 88 cm

1995 Corrugated cardboard n.25 Mixed media on wood 50 x 88 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.26 Mixed media on wood 50 x 88 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.27 Mixed media on wood 50 x 60 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.28 Mixed media on wood 80 x 120 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.29 Mixed media on wood 50 x 88 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.30 Mixed media on wood 150 x 100 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.31 Mixed media on wood 50 x 88 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.32 Mixed media on wood 50 x 88 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.33 Tempera on wood 50 x 88 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.34 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 35 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.36 Acrylic on wood 88 x 50 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.37 Acrylic on wood 50 x 70 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.38 Acrylic on wood 88 x 50 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.39 Acrylic on wood 50 x 88 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.40 Acrylic on wood 50 x 88 cm

1996 Corrugated cardboard n.41 Tempera and acrylic on wood 50 x 70 cm

Paintings from1988to2014. “Solo Legno”

“Just Wood”

Oltre l’immagine e il fremere dei sentimenti. Biondi Bruno e la sua espressione pittorica, il suo spazio che plasma portandovi la forma della percezione. Così in queste opere dal comune titolo: “Solo legno”. I caratteri sono uguali per quei colori tenui, timidi, ma con qualche puntualizzazione, che si alza dal fondo inizialmente scuro. È il primo chiarore dopo la notte, intrisa di frammenti, di cadenze, di battiti. Ora lo spazio si unisce al tempo, ritmato e prolungato dell’eternità. Qualche volta si espande, altre volte corre su uno stretto binario. L’alba ha frammenti di rosso e poi un chiarore di attesa come un’ansia, di trasfigurazione come un’ancestrale attesa, e poi ancora l’interazione segnica ed ondulatoria che tutto filtra, tutto trattiene. E tutto diviene universale e tutto è ripetuto. L’ordine stilistico, la sintesi armonica dei ritmi spingono ad intendere questo discorso artistico semplice e spoglio, ma viscerale che si annida da secoli tra le fragili e segrete pareti della coscienza umana. opere semplici, opere di riflessione, come si conviene ad un parlare di artista, come si conviene a Bruno Biondi.

Traveling far beyond images and vibrant emotions, the paintings of Bruno Biondi express a personal dimension created to shape our perception. This in exquisitely portrayed in his works entitled: “Solo legno” (Just wood). This stile is identical, with pale, subtle hues and a few brighter touches that stand out against the dark background. It is the first glimmer of dawn after the night, filled with bits and pieces, movement, and quivering hearthbeats. Now space merger with the prolonged, rhythmic tempo of eternity. Sometimes it expands, other times it travels along a narrow track. Dawn is tinged with reddish streaks. Then a gleam of light appears in anxious expectation, and ancestral anticipation that transfigures everything in touches. Iterated lines and waves filter and capture everything in their path. Everything is universal, everything returns. Through the stylistic approach and a synthesis of graceful movement, we are able to understand this simple and bare yet profound artistic expression that has remained hidden for centuries within the fragile and secret recesses of the human conscience. Simple work; that are cause of contemplation and reflection, they speak the unique artistic language of Bruno Biondi.

Dott. Prof. Giorgio Falossi Milano, 10 Marzo 1999

Dr. Prof. Giorgio Falossi Milan, 10 March 1999

Preliminary Study. “Only Wood.” “Vertical Concepts”. 51

November 1996 “Just Wood” Oil and acrylic on wood 80 x 80 cm

1997 “Just Wood” Sawdust, acrylic on wood 80 x 80 cm

February 1997 “Just Wood” Oil and acrylic on wood 88 x 50 cm

November 1998 “Just Wood” Acrylic on wood 80 x 80 cm

November 1998 “Just Wood” Acrylic on wood 50 x 88 cm

November 1996 “Just Wood” Acrylic on wood 50 x 88 cm

February 1997 “Just Wood” Acrylic on wood 50 x 88 cm

March 1997 “Just Wood” Oil on wood 53 x 102 cm

March 1997 “Just Wood” Oil on wood 53 x 94 cm

April 1997 “Just Wood” Oil on wood 50 x 70 cm

1996 “Just Wood” Oil on wood 48 x 66 cm

April 1997 “Just Wood” Oil on wood 50 x 85 cm

“Just Wood” Artworks on the wall.

“Just Cork”

Paintings from1988to2014. Some more paintings.

March 1994. Detail. Cork and acrylic on wood. 60x90 cm Commissioned Artwork. 72

Over the years I’ve made paintings that I gave to friends for sympathy or friendship, passion and deep love for women, and finally, also to myself, even though later on, these too, have been hung in homes because sold, which was not so bad, considering that what I earned I used for my other passion: go on the track with my Ducati. Other paintings, in the past and even more recently, have been commissioned to me on measure, purchased and between all this doing, donating, giving, selling or dispere, I have often lost their memory. Photo badly made recall to me the existence and location of many of those artwork but, too many things have happened over the years and I often wonder if they are still hanging on a wall or are hidden in a garret or in understairs. Only recently I learned that every painting commissioned or made for myself have to be carefully cataloged and archived and made quality photos is very important for a future use on catalogues, on the web or other needs. I also thought it was right and good thing to document every realization phase with a series of photographs that have no artistic ambitions, but solely and exclusively the purpose of telling myself, among years, as I use to work or as I’m working today. The techniques I use to achieve many of them are complex in steps, materials juxtaposed with each other, the instruments used, liquids, colors, solvents or just clear water. I think these

photo shoots will remain hidden to many or to all. A cook enshrines many of his culinary secrets... why should I not do the same with my paintings. All this giving to mine paintings is still perfectible, so then I’ve got many regrets. I could do more to strive for perfection, in every my realization, where the conclusion often seems never to arrive and never seems reachable in all its completeness. In fact it is so. Every job is ending unexpectedly. In a short breath I say to myself: it must be so! but time after time, I often find myself questioning that “ending.” I would like to make the same canvas more than in one copy, as if the new canvas will be the perfect copy of the “imperfect” I’ve allowed myself to sign up. But I must say: perfection does not exist. In all honesty, every time I started a painting on this purpose the result has been always another canvas, another job, always something different, despite my good intentions. Similar maybe, but not the completion of any picture I’ve ever made.

Milan, 12 October 2014

March 1994 Cork and acrylic on wood. 60x90 cm

Paintings from1988to2014. At the beginning it was so.

December 1988. Detail. Sawdust, oil, acrylic on canvas. 120x120 cm

Commissioned Artwork. 78

Once a psychiatric, a friend of mine, told me that the “Vertical Concepts” were me, I mean, those were for him the meaning of myself. Through the vision of my signs, “Vertical Concepts”, excavated in the canvas, seemed that I was tempting to elevate my body and my mind too (thoughts), towards to the top of the canvas, possibly over its limit, trying to finally let me free into the surrounding space, leaving behind what was obviously an empty space. Something very similar, I think, and I say, at a Mark Rothko’s canvas. Free from responsibilities, from tuff situations, from bad thoughts I use to have and soffer every single day. But analysing more carefully each canvas he also noticed that there was an horizontal stripe who was getting in evidence two different coloured areas of the canvas, generally a pale and white one at the top and a dark on the base, down covering everything of black ink or in any case anything but a somber color. The horizontal groove, dividing everytime in two part the “Vertical Concept”, meant that I was so far to escape from all that, far away from coming out from the canvas finally finding the liberty. I still was in the mist. In the middle. Into something still unclear to me, to anyone... to the Doctor too, unexpectedly far from any resolutions. All that, although I ever thought that those “Vertical Concepts” were the meaning of my deep need of strenght and stability, in a world were nothing but everything was unstable, inconstant,

variable...! This is what painting should give to me. Often I painted canvas far away to this concept, and so different from “Vertical Concepts”, but in my mind they are always present, unforgettable. They are like a silent, constant presence, there, ready to turn himself into another canvas. Bruno, be faithful to them!

Mark Rothko

Milan, 13 October 2014

May 1988. Sawdust, rope, acrylic on canvas. 340x120 + 340x120 Commissioned Artwork.

The beginning.

May 2014. Preliminary studies of the canvas â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vertical Conceptsâ&#x20AC;?. Sawdust and mixed media on canvas. 250x120 cm

Among the various studies, this is the chosen one for the commissioned canvas.

7 out of 15 preliminary studies.

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On the back of the canvas, between the frameworks, is attached a note about the finished Artwork.

5 August 2014. “Vertical Concepts”. Sawdust and mixed media on canvas. 250x120 cm

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5 August 2014. Entrance view of the apartment. The painting is on the wall without a frame. 250x120 cm

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Bruno Biondi Via Trento, 2 - Int. 2 20010 Casorezzo (MI) Tel. 02.90.29.78.48 Fax 02.90.29.80.49 Cell. 366.19.97.531 bbiondi@hubbiondi.it info@hubbiondi.it info@pec.hubbiondi.it art@hubbiondi.it 103

Cover: canvas detail, August 2014. 250x120 cm Commissioned Artwork.

Graphic Design by Bruno Biondi Chroma and Photo-Retouching by Daniela Delfrati Printed and binding by Fotolito Farini 14 October 2014