Giuseppe Borrello’s artistic experience
stand as something very different form the artistic expression of the late
Twentieth Century. His studies recall the extraordinary season of Italian
painting and are based on the importance of the line and the chiaroscuro,
capable of creating fascinating figures such as charming maidens, children and
naked women under the influence of the religious iconography.
His world goes beyond the
“Arte Povera”, conceptualism and minimalism, and redefines the role of the
painter in this period of highly advanced experiments where new techniques are
used to express a deeper sense of humane existence.
In this perspective
we can define the essence of Borrello’s experience, his capacity to fix a
profile, to give consistence to thick hair, to circumscribe the shape of a
pomegranate or a coffee-pot (fig.1). His engravings renew the vibrations
of the signs, thus malling the drawing more intense. They reflect Borrello’s
desire to impress the ancient streets of Sant’Agata di Esaro (Cosenza), its
corroded walls (fig.2), its flowery balconies, its staircases leading
into the houses, both on the slab and the sheet (fig.3).
The succession of
the impression underlines a world represented by “Padre Pio’s” (fig.4)
absorbed and inspired expression, “Claudia’s” (fig.5) draping robe,
the sweet melancholia of “Nostalgia for the sea” (fig.6), the girl
portrayed in “Ecstasy” (fig.7) with her loose hair.
Beside the soft and harmonious line of the
biro point, we have the suggestion of the silver point and the harder engravings
that complete the wide corpus of the paintings on wood created by Borrello. His
works on the whole reconsider the composition, the anatomy and the base of
artistic performance and give a personal imprint to his production.
Turin, 23 March 1996
Angelo Mistrangelo
Fig. 1 - G.Borrello - Composizione - 1992
Fig.1. G.Borrello - S.Agata, via S.Lucia - 1991
