With the exhibition “Eterna Pittura” (Eternal Painting), curated by Vittorio Sgarbi at the Estense Castle in Ferrara and open until December 26, 2024, Maurizio Bottoni retraces his career to reflect on the current role of painting. Bottoni, influenced by masters such as Giorgio de Chirico and Ugo Celada da Virgilio, combines meticulous technique and personal vision. Rejecting hyperrealism, he prefers a painting that arises from direct observation and memory, avoiding the use of photography as a starting point for the image. This approach, which gives his works liveliness and depth, underlines the importance of the pictorial material, following the tradition of the Flemish and Italian masters. The exhibition creates a dialogue between Bottoni’s works and the Renaissance architecture of the Estense Castle. The canvases deal with universal themes such as nature, life and death, inviting a reflection on the human condition. Works such as “Self-Portrait in the Company of Death” and “Ecce pictura” show Bottoni’s ability to combine irony and gravity, offering a meditation on the artist and the eternal relevance of painting.

Maurizio Bottoni, “San Sebastiano”, 1989, egg tempera on board, 114 x 95 cm, Suzzara, Mantova, Museo Galleria del Premio Suzzara; “Autoritratto in compagnia della morte”, 1989, egg tempera on board, 75 x 50 cm, artist’s collection

Marica Marchese: When did you meet Giorgio de Chirico?
Maurizio Bottoni: I met de Chirico at the end of the 1960s in Venice, at the Santo Stefano gallery. I was very young, but he was very sensitive to my questions because I was already dealing with painting techniques. There were many more meetings in the following years. I considered de Chirico one of the most important artists from the twentieth century and followed his line, with trial and error already when I was a young boy. No master gave exact recipes, then little by little I discovered them, with the help of de Chirico and other painters such as Ugo Celada da Virgilio. Those were the years in which I was experimenting, while Arte Povera was taking hold. I frequented those circles for a while, but then I realized that I wasn’t interested and started doing my own research.

Were there any works that you considered fundamental for your beginnings? You spoke of an early age in which you approached painting, was it thanks to your family?
No, my family was particular. My grandmother was an opera singer, my father worked in Rai. I followed my instinct, also because I spent my early childhood with my grandparents in the Bergamo area, in contact with nature in a very wild way. From there I began to be interested in figuration. Those memories and icons remain in my head. Many painters shocked me, from Grünewald to Dürer. The art history is dotted with hundreds of artists. We Italians are lucky enough to compare ourselves with artists who were the best in the world, so following the footsteps of great artists becomes tiring.

Maurizio Bottoni, “Ecce pictura”, 2003, oil on panel, 50 x 60 cm, artist’s collection

Why did you choose figurative painting?
The path of an artist has paths and encounters that change him over time. I was lucky enough to hang out with film directors, poets, writers like Buzzati and Giorgio Soavi. Encounters slowly change your views. I have my way of dealing with reality and painting. I always look at the subject, which can be a blade of grass or a complex composition, for the fascination that moves me. The choice is given by my aesthetic way of perceiving things, the result of experiences that start from antiquity up to today.

We could talk about a collective destiny of humanity. Precisely in the sign of universal experiences, one of the recurring themes in your works is death and, in general, Vanitas. I remember your “Self-portrait in the company of death” from 1989. Why did you portray yourself like this, or as in “Ecce pictura” from 2003?
“Self-portrait in the company of death” from 1989 is a quote from a famous painting by Böcklin, who was the inspiration and teacher of De Chirico and Metaphysics “Self-portrait with Death Playing the Violin” from 1872. It was a game, a connection between artists, and my feelings through these works. “Ecce pictura”, on the other hand, is an ironic stance. I have heard for too long that painting is dead, so I decided to paint myself decapitated like Saint John the Baptist, with my head on a plate. If in one thousand years there a boy will still pick up a brush and painting, it means that painting will not be dead, while all these art forms that we witness today will probably have died. It’s a peaceful protest, after all!

Maurizio Bottoni, “Zucca rossa”, 1997, oil on parchment, 50 x 40 cm, Milano, private collection; “Asparagi”, 2016, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm, artist’s collection

It’s easy to enjoy an artwork, but it’s unclear how long it takes to execute one of your paintings with such mastery. What was the most challenging (due to technique) painting you have ever made?
My most important paintings are different, but they are no longer in Italy. An American collector purchased a large four-by-two-meter painting and took it to California. Now it is only visible on the web, the title was “Migrations” and it was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2011. Another large forest painting measuring three by three meters is in Carlo De Benedetti’s collection. They were very demanding work from a technical and measurement point of view. I don’t have precise rules: the painting can succeed immediately or go on for months. When I feel like it’s not working, I turn the board towards the wall and pick it up again after a month or two. Time is given by my way of feeling and seeing things. I am quick to paint when my idea is clear. When I have doubt I slow down or stop, I don’t like to show off my technical ability. I am interested in the content of the work, not the display of technique.

Maurizio Bottoni, “Unknown”, 2007, oil on canvas, 81 x 68 cm, artist’s collection; “Scimpanzé”, 2024, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm, artist’s collection

Looking at your paintings dedicated to nature, I wondered if you started from direct observation or from a photo.
My painting is not a hyperrealist. Hyperrealism is an American movement from the late 1960s that uses photography as a starting point, which I do only in rare cases, just to remember the particular shape of a tree. I paint from life, make sketches and then go from memory in the studio, exactly like the “ancients” did. Photography, for me, doesn’t lead anywhere because it ties you to comfort, while painting must be a substrate of effort and reflection. I am a figurative painter. There is also a technical problem that not everyone understands, relating to the pictorial material. The great masters, from the Flemish to Giambattista Tiepolo, had secrets for making certain colors. Having the pictorial material does not mean squeezing the tube of color onto the palette and painting; it’s a whole other world. There are chemical and technical elements which, after long research, allow matter to take on a life of its own. Chardin argued that when the painting is made with this material you can paint everything, anything will come to life. Many young artists just paint well, but that’s not painting, it’s a description. I have my palette; the colors on the market are dull, while the color must have life, it must bring out the inner light and vibrate. In the past, this type of knowledge was widespread, but since the nineteenth century it has been lost and only a few continue to possess it. The Impressionists claimed to paint light, but they did not have light in their colouùr. I remember that as a boy I visited the museums of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where there is a small portrait by Memling with a sky so transparent that it seems as if you could put your finger there and sink into that air, which the Impressionists and other artists they will never be able to do it again. This is the pictorial quality that I understand. Moreover, painting must have content. It’s useless to paint an apple if that apple doesn’t say anything, same thing for portraits. You have to be focused and prepared on the art history from the beginning until today, as all important artists have always done, otherwise, you won’t go anywhere. Ignorance is unacceptable! Young artists must be able to work hard, it’s not enough to know how to draw and paint, they must work hard to concentrate on themselves. The only advice I could give is to have the strength and courage to continue, even if the rest of the world tells you no, as well as study more and more.

Marica Marchese

Info:

Maurizio Bottoni. Eterna pittura
curated by Vittorio Sgarbi
5/07 – 26/12/2024
Castello Estense di Ferrara
www.castelloestense.it

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is a contemporary art magazine since 1980