| SKIES ! Denied skies, stolen skies, violated skies, sought for skies …
Imaginary skies.
Skies whose inhabitants are still looking for and won’t possibly ever find.
Fidel Cataldi idealizes his “Pictorial Flight” through the skies of his characters . Characters that
are almost always real . Inhabitants of Bosnia, Africa, East Countries, South America,
continents for so long sacked and exploited ; excluded human beings plunged into skies they
will never be able to see unless paying for a high price.
I like to assume that “FUGITIVES” summarizes and defines Fidel Lino Cataldi ‘s art or at least it
catches the main aspects of his style.
His painting has something of mystic. The intense, sharp, mystical colours transpose on the
canvas the author’s idea of painting as a religion which is both strongly individual and choral.
His art shows us a steady tension between the opposites. It sends us to the beginning and then
to the end: his characters are flying away and this appears not only in title itself but also in
their flying away from any source of colour.
But they also seem to come closer.
They seem to flee from an explosion, although there could even be the beginning of an
explosion of life behind them.
Although they are flying away just as a “herd” , their flight is towards freedom.
In “FUGITIVES” there is a greatness which is typical of spaces, but not just spaces are
involved, also suffering , there is a sort of painful creaking in this nature.
May be greatness and suffering are somehow joint together and not kept apart.
Painting tells about life as it is : “running ” “flying away ”, fear of change and , in the meantime,
irresistible attraction towards the unknown and suffering.
Suffering as an unavoidable part of life , neither the unique nor the very core of it, but it plays
a central role just like anything else: running , flying away fear of change and irresistible
attraction towards the unknown and suffering.
The greatness of this artist lies in his capacity to catch the essence of life. At least this what it
seems to me…. |
