Marco Giannotti - Pinturas e fotografias

MARCO GIANNOTTI

Direo / Direccin / Directed byDavid Barro

Direccin de arteDardo ds

Coordinacin editorial / Editorial Coordination?

Textos / TextsDavid Barro, Ronaldo Brito

Tradues / Traducciones / Translations?

Revisin de textos / Reviso de textosDardo ds (Eliana Martins)

Grafismo / Diseo Grfico / Graphic designDardo ds (Laura Gmez)

Impresso / Impresin / PrintingEurogrficas

Fotografas / Fotografas / Photographscortesias do artista / Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud

Copyright 2010Artedardo, S.L.Rua Severino Riveiro Tom, n315702 Santiago de CompostelaT.: [+34] 881 976 986M.: [+34] 607 491 [email protected]

Gabinete de Arte Raquel ArnaudRua Artur de Azevedo, 401 So Paulo, SP, Brasil, CEP 05404-010 Tel. +5511 3083-6322www.raquelarnaud.com

edio / edicin / edition: Artedardo, S.L

fotografas, textos e tradues / fotografas, textos y traducciones / photographs, texts and translations: los autores / os autores / the authors

ISBN:Depsito Legal:

adminUnmarked definida por admin

MARCO GIANNOTTI

4 TEXTO PORT / David Barro

8Basta una sola imagen para captar la temperatura de la pintura de Marco Giannotti. La imagen tensa de su estudio, limpia, calibrada. La luz, la sombra, la escala, el equilibrio y el orden que acompaan a la espera descubren su mirada y envuelven la nuestra. Porque entender la pintura de Marco Giannotti es una cuestin de tiempo. El tiempo exacto que necesitamos para ver el mundo de otra manera, el tiempo de aprehender los que vemos de un modo reflexivo y crtico, pero sobre todo potico. De ah que nazca del residuo, de la luz y de su sombra, de un simple enrejado que se proyecta sobre nosotros para imprimirse en nuestra memoria, recontextualizando todo sin cerrar su significado. Porque la imagen de la pintura de Marco Giannotti es una imagen presa, producto de un momento detenido en el tiempo, de un gesto suspendido, de una singularizacin de la experiencia de pintar, pero tambin de vivir. Y la riqueza de su pintura radica precisamente en eso, en cmo consigue temperar formas y colores desde lo racional, sin dejar escapar ese lugar potico que nace de cada percepcin nica del espacio y de cmo el tiempo se despliega en ste a modo de pintura expandida, de fisura en la percepcin.

EL ABISMO DE UN TIEMPO SUSPENDIDO / David Barro

9Es como si el tiempo se encargase de trabajar las obras, un tiempo escultor como aquel que narra Marguerite Yourcenar, que nos cuenta cmo nuestros padres restauraban las estatuas para posteriormente nosotros proceder a quitarles su nariz y sus prtesis. En sus propias palabras: "Los grandes aficionados a las antigedades restauraban por piedad. Por piedad deshacemos nosotros su obra. Puede que tambin nos hayamos acostumbrado ms a las ruinas y a las heridas". Seguramente la inclinacin que nuestra poca siente hacia lo abstracto nos lleva a amar la ruina y potenciar el brillo esttico que se esconde en lo olvidado, ya sea en una dbil luz o en una simple mancha de humedad. No deja de ser curioso que uno de los ltimos encuentros expositivos de Marco Giannotti haya sido en el Monasterio de So Bento, conjuntamente con los artistas Jos Spaniol y Carlos Eduardo Ucha. Hablamos de un viaje al interior, en el tiempo y el espacio, "capaz de rescatar una relacin ms meditativa con la imagen", segn palabras del propio artista. Esa sensacin de prdida en lo potico tiene mucho que ver con esas fotografas de la Columnata de Bernini de Marco Giannotti, mxime cuando confiesa sentirse conmovido porque un arquitecto como Peter Zumthor recibiese el Pritzker Prize por el proyecto de una bella capilla: basta leer un texto de Zumthor para entender la temperatura potica que Giannotti pretende para sus cuadros.

Un ejemplo de todo ello son sus fotos recientes de la columnata de Bernini en Roma. La fotografa como pintura de exploracin del estrato histrico. El tiempo, y nuestra mirada, dejan que la pintura ocurra, que tenga lugar. La tensin calma de las curvas de las columnas, su piel timbrada y amenazada en su lucha con el tiempo o sus fisuras lumnicas encajan con la materialidad dctil de la pintura de Marco Giannotti, siempre de arquitecturas que se tornan sombras y monumentales, tensas como el producto de una resonancia. Porque la pintura de Marco Giannotti nace cuando el tiempo se fragmenta. Pienso, entonces, en un estado de ruina permanente, una ruina entendida como lo hace Derrida en un texto redactado con ocasin de una exposicin de dibujos sobre ciegos en el Museo del Louvre: "La ruina sobreviene como un accidente a un monumento ayer intacto. La ruina no est ante nosotros, no es un espectculo ni un objeto de amor. Es la experiencia misma: ni el fragmento abandonado pero todava monumental de una totalidad, ni siquiera, como pensaba Benjamin, un tema de la cultura barroca. No es un tema, justamente, arruina el tema, la posicin, la presentacin o la representacin de cualquier cosa. Ruina: ms bien memoria abierta como un ojo o el boquete de una rbita huesuda que nos deja ver sin mostrarnos nada en absoluto/del todo".

10 del paso del tiempo. Y ah radica la dificultad de la pintura de Marco Giannotti, que trata de atrapar ese distanciamiento como quien tiene la seguridad de que slo recogindose para pensar el mundo uno podr cosechar la verdadera belleza. De ah que, en muchos casos, y como seala Ronaldo Brito, "el cuadro se gira sobre s mismo, mezcla tiempos dispares y con eso nos retiene, mirando, desconfiando, volviendo a mirar".

Es como si la pintura estuviese all pero no brotase definitivamente. O como si fuese arrancada dejando sus restos. Como aquella baba de caracol que Bacon pretenda como efecto de sus cuadros; esa sensacin de haber dejado el rastro. Cierto es que en Bacon todo el cuerpo tiende a escaparse y la figura coquetea con su desaparicin. Por eso Deleuze llega a encontrarlo con Lewis Carroll en una suerte de disipacin de la sonrisa y cita un fragmento de su Alicia en el pas de las maravillas: "se borr muy lentamente terminando por la sonrisa, que persisti algn tiempo despus de que el resto del animal hubiera desaparecido". Y esa sensacin de no permanencia es idntica a las capas de pintura de Giannotti que ms que capas son memorias negativas de lo que sera una suerte de palimpsesto. Ms que acciones pictricas son desocultamientos, porque lo que vemos en sus pinturas es ese resto invisible del que nos habla Derrida, ese residuo o huella que puede desaparecer

Porque Marco Giannotti trabaja distintas sedimentaciones, memorias, experiencias y pasos que disean en el tiempo una figura inconcebible, una potica de lo frgil. Como si la pintura fuese una metamorfosis detenida, como si en su expansin dejase el resto de un lado secreto. Como una lmpara a punto de extinguirse que desobedece la potencia potica de lo ms oscuro, de la materia infinita que absorbe la luz del fondo no visible. Parece que Marco Giannotti ama ese sentido de ruina, en los objetos y en las pinturas, poetizando ese murmullo. En cierto modo, dira que pinta lo que desborda su lugar, lo que reverbera. Pero no lo espectacular, sino el pequeo acontecimiento que le acerca, otra vez, al placer del objeto, de la vida. Su bsqueda se inclina al placer del encuentro y a cmo el paisaje, el escenario, soporta ese suave acontecimiento. Porque ver poesa en el desgaste de la vida conduce a la difcil misin de escuchar las resonancias de un objeto, de un paisaje. Y esa aprehensin de lo efmero resulta clave en su pintura.

En el fondo, la pintura de Marco Giannotti es el resultado de un anhelo que se desdibuja en fragmentos capaces de suspender la realidad, procurando lo inabarcable de la imagen natural como un aroma entendido a modo de refugio inaccesible de la memoria involuntaria. Porque es verdad que el reconocimiento de un aroma, ms que cualquier otro recuerdo, adormece la conciencia

11lmite, como frontera, como prlogo de la sombra. Lo seala Victor I. Stoichita de un modo certero: "la pintura nace bajo el signo de una ausencia / presencia (ausencia de cuerpo / presencia de su proyeccin)". De ah la atraccin que en Giannotti ejerce la sombra, casi de un modo germinal, como cuando fotografa sus manos sobre las protuberancias del paisaje. Pienso entonces en lo que puede ser la primera imagen: el gesto de amor de Vernica, que limpi el sudor de Jess camino del Calvario y su imagen qued fijada sobre la tela, una metfora perfecta del proceso fotogrfico, un trasplante, un fundido, una veladura, que nos conduce a ese estado transitorio de los trabajos de Marco Giannotti, algo que en los ttulos nos queda claro: Contraluz, Oleodutos, Passagens, Travessia, etc Marco Giannotti busca la fisura, ya sea desde lo mnimo de un faro veneciano que evoca los paisajes romnticos de un Friedrich o desde el horror vacui piranesiano de trabajos como los de su serie Quadrante.

De ah su atraccin tambin por el pliegue en sus Passagens. Como esa sombra geomtrica distorsionada y manierista que nace de una puerta entreabierta o de una ventana que se despliega al espacio, Giannotti condensa algunas zonas para potenciar otras. Todo cobra peso y densidad, aunque la escena sea leve. Como seal Nelson Brissac Peixoto, "en contraposicin a las escenas leves y difanas de la pintura tradicional, tenemos

radicalmente. Insistiendo en Deleuze, ste nos recuerda como Bacon no deja de decir que la sensacin es lo que pasa de un 'orden' a otro, de un 'nivel' a otro, de un 'dominio' a otro. De ah las deformaciones, provocadas por la sensacin; pero tambin las expresiones recurridas por Bacon en sus entrevistas: 'secuencias movedizas', 'niveles sensitivos', 'rdenes de sensaciones', 'dominios sensibles'. Naturalmente poco podemos encontrar formalmente de Bacon en una obra como la de Giannotti pero s que podramos aprehender esas expresiones deleuzianas para catalogar el sentido sereno y tenso al tiempo de su pintura.

Podramos pensar en cmo algunas de sus ltimas pinturas semejan haber sido cegadas por la luz de una vela. No resulta gratuito pensar en la relacin que se establece con su videoinstalacin Vigila, donde la vela es argumento predominante. Como aquella vela de Gerhardt Richter, alegora sublime de la pintura, Giannotti se asoma as a un mundo barroco, que refuerza una potica que siempre ha buscado y encontrado en la luz su principal aliado para llegar a lo inclasificable, para revelar lo oculto. Como en un poema, nos interesa la memoria congelada de los objetos, un conjunto de imgenes que parecen vivir agnicamente suspendidas en el tiempo, como quien hace equilibrios entre la vida y la muerte, entre lo que existe y lo inexistente. La luz acaricia y templa las formas, y emerge como

12 dejan efectivamente entrever las varias capas que en ellos se fueron acumulando, en el caso de sus fachadas evocando toques de Matisse o Morris Louis, como si la pintura de un Peter Halley hubiese salido desteida de la lavadora. As, es fcil entender lo vibrante de su Sala Vermelha (1994) o los posteriores goteos que construirn sus Templos (1995) primero, y mezclas cromticas que conformarn sus Crcere (1996) y su serie Cubato (1996). Ms tarde, su serie Cromo (1997) revela ms claramente cmo para Giannotti las formas emergen sobre todo para suscitar el color. Fiel al nuevo sentido del espacio contemporneo como desdoblamiento, las formas que flotan en el espacio donde evidentemente vemos a Halley pero tambin vemos a una referencia ms cercana geogrficamente que an hoy contina siendo irrenunciable para su pintura como es Volpi acompaan al color en esa nueva misin de generar una atmsfera, de ser parte de ella en su condicin estructural capaz de tornarse efectivo en el espacio real, convirtiendo su luz en vibrante ejercicio ambiental. El color, o ms concretamente su percepcin, conduce a otras percepciones y a un ejercicio fenomenolgico. La forma, definitivamente al servicio del color, proyecta el espacio interior del cuadro en fragmento del mundo real.

Todas estas razones y procesos convergen, casi a modo de sntesis, en series ms recientes como Estructuras Espaciais I

la acentuacin de la densidad y de la materialidad del panorama". Lo deca a propsito de sus Fachadas (1993), un paisaje sin informaciones, propio de un lenguaje saturado, ese producido por una ciudad que en el cuerpo a cuerpo con nuestra mirada se ha tornado invisible, sin horizonte. Nelson Brissac Peixoto hablaba entonces del poder anamnsico de la fotografa y de cmo la pintura se ocupaba de revelarlo. Efectivamente, como en artistas como Gerhard Richter en Giannotti el lienzo ya no est vaco de antemano y la pintura no sirve para producir la imagen sino que es la imagen la que nos sirve para producir pintura, aunque esa imagen sea mental. As, es la imagen, o su dislocacin, la que genera otra nueva imagen. Richter lo deja claro en unas notas datadas en 1964 y 1965. "Cuando pinto a partir de una fotografa, el pensamiento consciente queda suprimido. No s lo que hago. Mi trabajo se asemeja ms a lo informal que a cualquier tipo de 'realismo'. La fotografa tiene una abstraccin propia que no es nada fcil de penetrar". Para Richter la fotografa es una forma de ganar distancia a la hora de penetrar en lo real y asume una funcin religiosa en el momento en que todo el mundo elabora sus propios recordatorios a partir de ella. Y eso tiene mucho que ver con aquello que Nelson Brissac Peixoto anunciaba a propsito de Marco Giannotti, aseverando que su pintura tiene que luchar permanentemente con la ausencia de horizonte y su sentido de 'hacer': pegar, pintar, rasgar, quemar Los lienzos de Giannotti

13condicin potica que acta a modo de toma de decisiones de un artista que, por otro lado, siempre ha mantenido un slido halo conceptual y dimensin crtica. Como quien otorga el poder a la memoria, la pintura de Marco Giannotti nace en el presente sin olvidar el pasado, como quien limpia un espacio para repensar su lugar. Porque detrs de todo siempre estar la pregunta de qu es pintar y por qu seguir hacindolo.

Es como si Marco Giannotti procurara darle a la luz una sensacin fsica, como si fuese una suerte de cuerpo que permitiese a la pintura despojarse de lo ajeno, de lo superfluo, de lo accesorio. La piel, sera entonces, el tono, la vibracin, el color como emocin, y la forma, por otro lado inseparable, sera lo racional de la existencia. En la pintura de Marco Giannotti la quietud es la anamnesis de lo clsico, de lo resuelto en perfecto orden, pero la exgesis de su trabajo se desvela en lo contrario, en la emocin que se confronta como condicin de lo no resuelto, de ese lugar capaz de vibrar en la mirada.

Lo seal Jos ngel Valente en conversacin con Antoni Tpies, "crear es generar un estado de disponibilidad, en el que la primera cosa creada es el vaco, un espacio vaco". Encontrar ese camino en la pintura slo est al alcance de quien la entiende en clave potica. Pero tambin de quien conoce la historia y

(1999), Relevos (2000), Estructuras Espaciais II (2001), Passagens I (2003), Oleodutos (2005), Passagens II (2006) o Contraluz (2009). Una pintura en muchos casos reticular que huye del fro para buscar una contemplacin ms calida y exttica, emocional y rtmica, buscando la vibracin cromtica y ese tipo de abstraccin impura que esconde la aprehensin de algo, tan sutil como fundamental. Seguramente sea una cuestin de piel, de textura que transforma la pintura casi en un ser vivo.

Hablamos de un tipo de pintura desteida, desganada. Como si quisiese morir. Y es verdad que antes reconocamos la posibilidad de que una vela cegara el centro de sus ltimas pinturas; la luz de una vela podra entenderse como conexin ertica con la muerte, como en la filosofa de Bataille; una muerte que es, paradjicamente, el aroma de la existencia. De ah que Marco Giannotti confiese su atraccin por el abismo de exponer en una capilla, como Matisse, como Rothko, como Volpi. Porque la propia actitud consciente de Marco Giannotti tiene mucho que ver con la histrica relacin de la pintura y el espacio arquitectnico. Giannotti sabe y valora que Rothko tras visitar las ruinas griegas de Paestum confes que sin saberlo llevaba pintando templos griegos toda su vida. Hablamos de proporciones, s, pero sobre todo, de luz y de cmo sta se manifiesta. La intensidad de las descripciones cromticas de Giannotti permite entender esa

14 podramos pensar en cmo Deleuze advirti que el barroco no es un arte de las estructuras sino de las texturas, una proliferacin de pliegues. Un mundo de capturas ms que de clausuras.

La obra de Marco Giannotti juega con los mrgenes y los fragmentos, con desrdenes y perversiones, hasta llegar a un interesante estado de 'suspensin'. Pienso, por ejemplo, en cmo estas obras se podran comparar con los relatos de Maurice Blanchot, desorientndonos en su variabilidad porque albergan un otro tiempo, no ficticio, sino el de la narracin pictrica, o si se prefiere de la experiencia de conformacin de unas formas volcadas a lo desconocido. Porque el tiempo aqu se experimenta. En Blanchot es el tiempo de lo inaudito y lo impensable, de lo oscuro o, ms concretamente, de la ausencia de tiempo o presente sin presencia. El texto domina, el discurso vence y se impone al sujeto. Como en las formas de apariencia fractal de Marco Giannotti, todo se desborda, hasta el propio margen, y el artista trata de tatuar esa realidad insistiendo en el fragmento potico, sumando otro tiempo ms, virtual, imaginario como el tiempo de la escritura, aportico como el inherente a esa escritura de Blanchot, incapaz de tornarse presente definitivamente. Como toda pintura culta.

la borra para otorgarle nuevas formas, como en aquel gesto de Rauchenberg sobre el dibujo de De Kooning. La pintura de Marco Giannotti se configura as como un palimpsesto invisible, aunque no seamos capaces de advertirlo en nuestra primera mirada. Pienso en el techo de la pintura Innenraum de Kiefer y me es inevitable asociar esa mirada con los ltimos trabajos de Giannotti. Porque Giannotti se guarda la ventaja de no intentar esconder las referencias, desde Brice Marden a Sean Scully, desde Piero della Francesca a Rothko, desde Peter Halley a Ian Davenport. Sabe que las soluciones son otras pero los problemas son los mismos: la luz, el espacio, el tiempo, el color, el ritmo.

Ante la ltima exposicin de Marco Giannotti en el Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud tuve la sensacin de que una extraa luz baaba los cuadros. Ms tarde advert que esa luz ya haba sido absorbida por los propios cuadros. Sent como si esa suerte de belleza se hubiese precipitado al vaco, como aquella situacin que escriba Borges en Los conjurados, "s que he perdido tantas cosas que no podra contarlas y que esas perdiciones, ahora, son lo que es mo". Un tipo de sentimiento condensado, como si experimentsemos una especie de miopa que nos velara para conducirnos a lo ambiguo de esa inmensidad que, como seala Rafael Argullol al respecto del Romanticismo, causa una nostalgia indescriptible al tiempo que un vaco asfixiante. Pero tambin

15destila a partir de una trama, a veces sutil y a veces densa, a veces adelgazada y a veces gruesa, pero siempre a punto de expirar, en un momento determinante. Es como si pensamiento e imagen se hubieran fundido, producto de una sntesis.

Pero si algo es fundamental, como decamos, en las obras de Maco Giannotti es la importancia de la luz. Mxime en sus ltimas obras, heridas como nunca. Pienso en Turner y en cmo John Berger nos habla de una violencia que est expresada por el agua, el viento y el fuego, que en algunas ocasiones se dira que es una cualidad que pertenece tan slo a la luz. La luz devora el mundo visible y hace vibrar y brillar cada una de las pinceladas de Giannotti. Su capacidad para temperar el cuadro, como si fuese un piano nos aboca a un abismo de la mirada, como aquel descenso al Maelstrm narrado por Edgar Allan Poe: "Al principio me sent demasiado confundido para poder observar nada con precisin. Todo lo que alcanzaba era ese estallido general de espantosa grandeza". Y esa confusin se da en la pintura de Giannotti, donde nada es definitivo y el color reverbera, resuena, tamizando ese tiempo de misterio como el de un poema todava sin iluminar.

Hablamos, en definitiva, de deseo cristalizado en pintura. En sus ltimos trabajos, de una serie de verjas encontradas en la ciudad de So Paulo que son impresas en el lienzo, la imaginacin abre los ms imprevisibles caminos. En cierto modo, sus paisajes y retratos son una suerte de no lugar, en tanto que lugar imaginario o realidad deformada que slo existe en la mente del artista. Algo as como un viaje que habita nuestra propia vida. Pienso en todos los lugares que imagin un Ren Magritte que nunca lleg a salir de su pas. O en la reticencia a viajar de Morandi. O en cmo el pensamiento de Kant empap el mundo de una nueva filosofa sin salir de Knigsberg. Las estructuras esterilizadas de Marco Giannotti semejan vibrar an estando quietas. Atendamos sino a la poesa con forma de naturaleza muerta de un Giorgio Morandi, de quien el mismo De Chirico dir que su mirada nos reserva lo ms ntimo, la estructura de estas cosas muertas que nos parecen ms reconfortantes en su inmovilismo. Porque el intimismo de Morandi es ms elegancia sencilla, producto de una mirada tranquila, discreta, que un entorno cargado de metafsica o piscologas literarias. Lo incgnito de las naturalezas muertas de Morandi tiene ms que ver con la tranquilidad que emana de un Corot, un Vermeer o, sobre todo, un Chardin, ya que para Morandi el arte no serva a otro propsito ajeno a lo que resulta implcito en el propio cuadro, a una particular manera de proyectar su realidad. Y esa realidad en Marco Giannotti se

16 O que vemos, de incio, mais parece um negativo fotogrfico: a imagem ainda no foi revelada. Por isto mesmo, somos levados a nos aproximar da tela, examin-la, interrog-la, na expectativa talvez de que nesse meio tempo a imagem se mostre por completo. Mas a manobra ser recorrente, interminvel, pois a ao esttica da pintura de Marco Giannotti consiste justamente em sustentar um poder de atrao indefinido, a reclamar uma percepo que no cesse de corrigir e refazer o seu percurso. Assim como as mltiplas investidas da tmpera acrlica so volteis, nem chegam a formar camadas, no agem enfim maneira das velaturas do leo tradicional estranhamente, elas ficam na tela mas no sob o regime da permanncia tambm a nossa ateno demorada no ganha consistncia com o tempo. Ela sempre chamada, de novo, pela primeira vez. Essa pintura que no entrega a imagem que, de sada, promete, tampouco desvela a interioridade sedutora que deixa entrever.

A essa altura, pode-se muito bem argumentar, nenhuma qumica explosiva. Ainda assim, uma linguagem de pintura contempornea que se move sincera, consciente, quase compulsivamente entre dois polos to antagnicos quanto Mark Rothko e Andy Warhol, pelo menos declara com franqueza sua origem problemtica, assume desde logo o dilema de seu vir a ser. E, no entanto, do ponto de vista de um pintor culto, vocacional,

UM OLHAR LENTO, OUTRO FLUIDO / Ronaldo Brito

17nada mais lgico. Como escapar a Rothko, ao fascnio irresistvel, que se quer perene, da mais intransigente entre todas as ltimas das altas pinturas da tradio ocidental? E como permanecer imune a Andy Warhol, o soberano falso dem iurgo das aparncias, e isto at os nossos dias, depois de meio sculo? Seria um pouco como ignorar, sua poca, a tenso entre Plato e Protgoras.

verdade que a releitura de Marco Giannotti j comea por se especificar, passa ao largo das ideologias de produo dos dois artistas e de suas conflitantes recepes crticas, concentra-se inteira no problema da cor. E mesmo a, opera um recorte: trata-se muito mais do tardio e sombrio Rothko, muito mais do Warhol das Shadows do que de qualquer outro. O que, de pronto, remete tudo, ou quase tudo, prtica material da pintura. Traduzindo em termos crticos, discursivos, o que certamente ocorre no plano intuitivo, no prprio imaginrio do artista, a questo da cor redefine e singulariza o conflito. Depois de Warhol, ser vivel ou factvel a busca da cor intrnseca, a cor por ela mesma, com seu impacto esttico autnomo? A iluminao extrnseca, mundana, de Warhol sbia pardia do teatro da mdia deteria semelhante alcance, de golpe resumiria dois sculos de livre e exaltada aventura cromtica moderna? A resposta do pintor vem e s pode vir pelo trabalho reiterado de investigao da cor,

pela interrogao sobre as suas atuais condies de exerccio, a resposta vir em suma pelo processo de repetio da pergunta.

E a tarefa no , em definitivo, a simples conciliao entre opostos e contrrios. O desafio dessa pintura mostrar-se altura de suas intuies dspares, tensionar-se, flexionar-se, tornar-se contempornea de si mesma. Por exemplo, na questo do tempo. Visivelmente, dentro da mesma srie, os quadros de Marco Giannotti tendem a se particularizar, cada um deles, por assim dizer, subjetiva-se. Da o tempo esttico que exigem, algo lento, meditativo, que jamais termina porm no puro xtase de Rothko porque trazem sempre de volta o seu problema de incio. Em todo caso, a eles tampouco se aplica a suspenso ctica, a annima ironia repetitiva, que distingue as sries de Warhol. Todo quadro encerra aqui o seu destino, embora j no o possa faz-lo sob o modelo da unidade ntegra.

Ou ainda, o crucial problema da luz. Das telas de Giannotti parece emanar uma luz substantiva, que elas quase destilam, ao mesmo tempo em que exibem uma fosforecncia suspeita, como se uma iluminao artificial viesse, de fora, a ating-las. As cores, s vezes graves, profundas, remanescentes do ltimo Rothko, resultam um tanto enganosas, a um passo da pardia, descrentes em epifanias. No to rasas e rpidas, certo, quanto as cores

18 mas esquiva. E sintomtico, nesse sentido, o retorno do leo, sria contrapartida ligeira tmpera acrlica. At pela demora da secagem, o leo introduz um segundo momento, denso e dubitativo, que se contrape s aes volveis do acrlico: o quadro volta-se sobre si mesmo, mistura tempos dspares, e com isso nos retm, olhando, desconfiando, tornando a olhar.

estrategicamente frvolas das Shadows cores que, quanto mais contemplamos, querendo decifr-las, menos sentimos. Mas, la Warhol, os quadros de Giannotti guardam a memria de imagens difusas, meio fora de foco, como se despedissem da aura extinta.

E, de fato, nessas telas se imprimem e reimprimem, deixam marcas visveis, as grades de ferro que o artista recolhe ao acaso numa cidade (S. Paulo) onde grades tm uma presena ostensiva. H, sim, uma ponta de ironia nessa aluso a um significante conspcuo no jargo da Histria da Arte Moderna: a legendria grade (grid) cubista. Fiquemos por aqui, contudo, pois a ironia uma espcie de estranha-ntima ao esprito do trabalho. De qualquer modo, um elemento urbano comum, extra-estdio, ingressa na qumica da pintura e indica, no mnimo, certo desconforto com sua condio reclusa. As imagens dispersas dessas grades, em superposices que se confundem e virtualmente se auto-anulam, funcionam assim como as estruturas fracas do trabalho. Em tom coloquial, exprimem uma profisso de f do artista acerca da pintura contempornea: nem janela a propiciar uma vista, nem uma autodemonstrao conceitual, distanciada, que logo se esteriliza.

Resta tela reinventar-se, redescobrir-se, agir com eficcia em meio ao All-Over inexorvel, manter-se em aberto, intrigante

20 Lo que vemos, de entrada, parece ms un negativo fotogrfico: la imagen todava no ha sido revelada. Por esto mismo, se nos lleva a acercarnos al lienzo, a examinarlo, a interrogarlo, con la expectativa quizs de que en ese medio tiempo la imagen se muestre por completo. Pero la maniobra ser recurrente, interminable, pues la accin esttica de la pintura de Marco Giannotti consiste justamente en mantener un poder de atraccin indefinido, reclamando una percepcin que no deje de corregir y rehacer su recorrido. As como las mltiples embestidas de la tmpera acrlica son voltiles, ni llegan a formar capas, no actan finalmente como las veladuras del leo tradicional extraamente, quedan en el lienzo pero no bajo el rgimen de permanencia, tampoco nuestra pausada atencin gana consistencia con el tiempo. Siempre es llamada, de nuevo, por primera vez. Esa pintura que no entrega la imagen que, antes de nada, promete, tampoco desvela la interioridad seductora que deja entrever.

En este momento, se puede argumentar muy bien que ninguna qumica es explosiva. An as, un lenguaje de pintura contemporneo que se mueve sincera, consciente, casi compulsivamente entre dos polos tan antagnicos como Mark Rothko y Andy Warhol, por lo menos declara con franqueza su origen problemtico, asume desde luego el dilema de su

UNA MIRADA LENTA, OTRA FLUIDA / Ronaldo Brito

21de golpe dos siglos de libre y exaltada aventura cromtica moderna? La respuesta del pintor viene y slo puede venir del trabajo reiterado de investigacin del color, de la interrogacin sobre sus actuales condiciones de ejercicio, la respuesta vendr en suma del proceso de repeticin de la pregunta.

Y la tarea no es, en definitiva, la simple conciliacin entre opuestos y contrarios. El desafo de esa pintura es mostrase a la altura de sus intuiciones dispares, tensionarse, flexionarse, volverse contempornea de s misma. Por ejemplo, en la cuestin del tiempo. Visiblemente, dentro de la misma serie, los cuadros de Marco Giannotti tienden a particularizarse, cada uno de ellos, por decirlo as, se subjetivizan. De ah el tiempo esttico que exigen, algo lento, meditativo, que jams termina en cambio en el puro xtasis de Rothko porque traen siempre de vuela su problema de inicio. En todo caso, a ellos tampoco se les aplica la suspensin ctica, la annima irona repetitiva, que distingue las series de Warhol. Todo cuadro encierra aqu a su destino, aunque ya no pueda hacerlo bajo el modelo de la unidad ntegra.

O incluso, el crucial problema de la luz. De los lienzos de Giannotti parece emanar una luz sustantiva, que casi destilan, al mismo tiempo que exhiben una fosforescencia sospechosa, como si una iluminacin artificial viniese, desde fuera, a

surgimiento. Y sin embargo, desde el punto de vista de un pintor culto, vocacional, nada ms lgico. Cmo escapar a Rothko, a la fascinacin irresistible, que si quiere perenne, de la ms intransigente entre todas las ltimas de las altas pinturas de la tradicin occidental? Y cmo permanecer inmune a Andy Warhol, el falso soberano demiurgo de las apariencias, y esto hasta nuestros das, despus de medio siglo? Sera un poco como ignorar, en su poca, la tensin entre Platn y Protgoras.

Es cierto que la relectura de Marco Giannotti empieza ya especificndose, pasa lejos de las ideologas de produccin de los dos artistas y de sus encontradas recepciones crticas, se concentra al completo en el problema del color. E incluso ah, acta un rasgo: se trata mucho ms del tardo y sombro Rothko, mucho ms del Warhol de las Shadows, que de cualquier otro. Lo que, de pronto, remite todo, o casi todo, a la prctica material de la pintura. Traducido en trminos crticos, discursivos, lo que ciertamente ocurre en el plano intuitivo, en el propio imaginario del artista, la cuestin del color redefine y singulariza el conflicto. Despus de Warhol, ser viable o factible la bsqueda del color intrnseco, el color en s mismo, con su impacto esttico autnomo? La iluminacin extrnseca, mundana, de Warhol sabia parodia del teatro de los medios de masas detendra semejante alcance, resumira

23ni ventana que propicie una vista, ni una autodemostracin conceptual, distanciada, que luego se esteriliza.

Le queda al lienzo reinventarse, redescubrirse, actuar con eficacia en medio del All-Over inexorable, mantenerse en abierto, intrigante pero esquivo. Y es sintomtico, en ese sentido, el retorno del leo, seria contrapartida a la ligera tmpera acrlica. Hasta por la demora de secado, el leo introduce un segundo momento, denso y dubitativo, que se contrapone a las acciones volubles del acrlico: el cuadro se vuelve sobre s mismo, mezcla tiempos dispares, y con eso nos retiene, mirando, desconfiando, volviendo a mirar.

alcanzarlos. Los colores, a veces graves, profundos, remanente del ltimo Rothko, resultan un tanto engaosos, a un paso de la parodia, descredos de epifanas. No tan rasos y rpidos, es cierto, como los colores estratgicamente frvolos de las Shadows colores que, cuanto ms los miramos, queriendo descifrarlos, menos sentimos. Pero, a la Warhol, los cuadros de Giannotti guardan la memoria de imgenes difusas, medio desenfocadas, como si fuesen despedidas del aura extinta.

Y, de hecho, en esos lienzos se imprimen y reimprimen, dejan marcas visibles, las rejillas de hierro que el artista recoge al azar en una ciudad (S. Paulo) donde las rejillas tienen una presencia ostensiva. Hay, s, una pizca de irona en esa alusin a un significante conspicuo en la jerga de la Historia del Arte Moderno: la legendaria rejilla (grid) cubista. Dejmoslo aqu, an as, pues la irona es una especie de extraa-ntima al espritu del trabajo. De cualquier modo, un elemento urbano comn, extra-estudio, entra en la qumica de la pintura e indica, en lo mnimo, cierta incomodidad con su condicin reclusa. Las imgenes dispersas de esas rejillas, en superposiciones que se confunden y virtualmente se autoanulan, funcionan as como las estructuras dbiles del trabajo. En tono coloquial, expresan una profesin de fe del artista sobre la pintura contempornea:

QUADRANTES / 2010

Quadrante # 7, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista

Quadrante A, 40x100 cm, tcnica mista

Quadrante B, 40x100 cm, tcnica mista




Quadrante #, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista

Quadrante #6, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista


QUADRANTES / 2010

Quadrante 2, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista











ARTE E ESPIRITUALIDADE / 2009

Bernini, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta




Travessia, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta






Limbo, 120x160 cm, leo sobre lienzo

Porta do inferno, 240x170 cm, leo sobre lienzo

Porta do paraiso, 230x170 cm, leo sobre lienzo

Vigilia, video instalao

Vigilia, video instalao

VIA CRUCIS / 2009

1 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela














CONTRALUZ / 2009

S/T, 80x100 cm, tmpera sobre tela

S/T, 170 x 250, tmpera sobre tela

Purgatrio, 170 x 320

S/T, 80 x100 cm, leo sobre tela

S/T, 100x200 cm, leo sobre tela


S/T, 80x100 cm, leo sobre tela


PASSAGENS II / 2006

Vista do ateli

Passagem, ?, leo sobre tela

Passagem em dois vermelhos, 250x200 cm, leo sobre tela

OLEODUTOS / 2004-2005

Sem ttulo, 260 x 210 cm, leo e tmpera sobre tela

Oleoduto verde musgo e bordeaux, 170x150 cm, leo e tmpera sobre tela

Triptico cinza, 160x360 cm, leo e tmpera sobre tela

94 One picture is enough to capture the Marco Giannottis painting. The tense image of a clean, calibrated studio. The light, the shade, the scale, the balance and the order that accompany the waiting discover their gaze and return our own. Because understanding Marco Giannottis painting is a question of time. The exact time we need to see the world in a different way, the time of apprehending what we see in a manner that is reflective and critical, but above all poetic. Thus it arises from the residue, from light and from its shade, from a simple network that is projected upon us and is then impressed on our memory, recontextualising everything without closing down its meaning. Because the image of Marco Giannottis painting is a captured image, the product of a moment that is stopped in time, of a suspended gesture, of a singularisation of the experience of painting, but also of living. And the wealth of his painting lies precisely in this fact, in how to manage to achieve forms and colours from the rational, without allowing the escaping of that poetic place that is born out of each unique perception of space, and of how time unfolds within it like expanded painting, like a gap in perception.

One example of all this are his recent photos of the Bernini Columnata in Rome. Photography as a painting of the exploration of historical

strata. Time, and our gaze, let the painting happen and take place. The calm tension of the curves of the columns, their marked skin, threatened in its struggle against time, or its fissures of light, fit in with the ductile luminous nature of Marco Giannottis painting, always made up of architectures that become sombre and monumental, as tense as the product of a resonance. Because Marco Giannottis painting is born when time is fragmented. I am thus thinking about a state of permanent ruin, a ruin understood as Derrida does so in a text of his on the occasion of a drawing exhibition about the blind in the Louvre Museum: the ruin survives as an accident of a monument that was intact yesterday. The ruin does not stand before us, it is not a spectacle nor an object of love. It is experience itself: neither the abandoned yet still monumental fragment of a wholeness, nor even, as Benjamin thought, a subject of baroque culture. It is not a subject; indeed, it ruins the subject, the position, the presentation or the representation of something. Ruin: rather a memory that is open like an eye or the opening in a bony orbit that allows us to see without showing anything at all/of the whole.

It is as if the time took charge of these works, a sculpting time, like that told of by Marguerite Yourcenar, who tells us about how our parents

THE ABYSS OF A SUSPENDED TIME / David Barro

95restored statues so that we could later cut their noses and their false limbs off. In her own words: The great lovers of antiques restored out of mercy. Out of mercy we ourselves undo their work. We may have become more used to ruins and wounds. No doubt the inclination our period feels towards the abstract leads us to love the ruin and empower the aesthetic shine that is hidden in what is forgotten, whether this is a faint light or a simple mark of humidity. It is indeed curious that one of Marco Giannottis last exhibition encounters was in the Sao Bento Monastery, along with the artists Jos Spaniol and Carlos Eduardo Ucha. We are talking about a journey to the interior, in time and space, capable of summoning up a more meditative relationship with the image, in the artists own words. That feeling of loss in the poetic has a lot to do with these photographs of the Bernini Columnata by Marco Giannotti, especially when he confesses that he is moved by the fact that an architect like Peter Zumthor received the Pritzker Prize for the Project for a beautiful chapel: it is enough to read a text by Zumthor to understand the poetic temperature that Giannotti intends his paintings to have.

Because Marco Giannotti works on different sedimentations, memories, experiences and steps that draw an unconceivable figure in time,

a poetics of the fragile. As if the painting were a stopped metamorphosis, as if in its expansion it left the remains of a secret side. Light a light bulb about to go out that disobeys the poetic potential of the darkness, of the infinite matter that absorbs the light in the invisible depths. It seems like Marco Giannotti loves that sense of ruin in objects and paintings, bringing poetry to this whisper. In a certain way I would state that he paints what overflows, what reverberates. But not the spectacular; instead the small event coming close to the pleasure of the object, of life. His search tends towards the pleasure of encounter and to how the landscape, the setting, supports this soft happening. Because seeing poetry in the difficult wearing down of life leads to the difficult mission of listening to the resonances of an object, of a landscape. And this apprehending of the ephemeral is a key element in his painting.

Deep down, Marco Giannottis painting is the result of a longing that is set out in fragments capable of suspending reality, seeking out the unapproachable of the natural image as an aroma understood as an inaccessible refuge of involuntary memory. Because it is true that the recognition of an aroma, more than any other memory, lulls awareness of the passage of time. And here is where the difficulty of Marco

Giannottis painting lies, in that it deals with capturing that distancing like someone who is sure that only in withdrawing in order to think of the world can one be able to reap the true rewards of true beauty. So in many cases, and as Ronaldo Brito points out, the painting turns around on itself, mixing disparate times, and thus keeps us watching, looking in distrust, and looking again.

It is as if the painting were there but had not definitively broken out. Or as if it had been pulled up, leaving its remains. Like that snail slime that Bacon wanted to leave as the effect of his paintings; that sensation of having left a trail. It is clear that for Bacon all of the body tries to flee and the figure flirts with its own disappearance. For this reason Deleuze manages to find him with Lewis Carroll in a sort of dissipation of the smile, and quotes a fragment of his Alices Adventures in Wonderland: this time it vanished quite slowly ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone. And this feeling of non-permanence is identical to that of the layers of painting by Giannotti that, more than being layers, are negative memories of what would be a sort of palimpsest. More than being pictorial actions, they are uncoverings, because what we see in his paintings is that invisible remains that Derrida speaks to us about, that residue or

96 in order to empower others. Everything gains weight and density, although the setting is light. As Nelson Brissac Peixoto stated, in opposition to the light and diaphanous settings of traditional painting, we have the stressing of the density and material nature of the view. He said this about his Fachadas [Faades] (1993), a landscape with no information, suited to a saturated language, which is produced by a city that, in a face-off struggle with our gaze, has become invisible, with no horizons. Nelson Brissac Peixoto was talking about the anamnesic power of photography and about how painting dealt with showing it. Indeed, like in artists such as Gerhard Richter, in Giannotti the canvas is no longer empty from the outset and the painting does not serve to produce the image, but the image serves in order for us to produce painting, although this image is mental. So it is the image, or its shifting, that generates another new image. Richter makes this clear in some notes dated 1964 and 1965. When I paint from a photograph the conscious thought is suppressed. I dont know what Im doing. My work is more like the informal than any type of realism. Photography has an abstraction of its own that is not at all easy to penetrate. For Richter photography is a way of gaining distance at the time of penetrating the real, and has a religious

what does not. The light caresses and tempers the forms, and emerges as a limit, as a frontier, as a prologue to the shadow. This is clearly pointed out by Victor I. Stoichita: painting is born under the sign of an absence / presence (absence of body / presence of its projection). Thus there is the attraction that the shadow exerts in Giannotti, almost in a germinating manner, like when he photographs his hands on the outcrops of the landscape. I then think about what the first image might be: Veronica gesture of love, wiping Jesus sweat on the walk to Calvary and his image was set into the cloth, a perfect metaphor for the photographic process, a transplant, a fusing, a veiling, that leads us into that transitory state of the works of Marco Giannotti, something that is clear to us in their titles: Against the Light, Oleoducts, Passages, Crossing, etc Marco Giannotti seeks out the gap, whether this is from the mnimum aspect of a Venetian lighthouse evoking the landscapes of a Friedrich or the Piranesian horror vacui of Works like those in his Quadrante series.

This is the reason for his attraction for the fold in his Passages. Like that distorted, mannerist geometric shadow that is born out of a slightly opened door or from a window that unfolds from the space, Giannotti condenses some zones

mark that might radically disappear. Insisting on Deleuze, he reminds us how Bacon keeps on stating that feeling is what goes from one order to another, from one domain to another. Thus there are the deformations provoked by feeling; but also the expression used by Bacon in his interviews: shifting sequences, sensitive levels, orders of sensations, sensitive domains. Naturally, we can find very little formally of Bacon in a work such as that of Giannotti, but we can take on board these Deleuzean expressions in order to catalogue the simultaneously serene and tense sense of his painting.

We might think about how some of his paintings seem to have been struck blind by the light of a candle. It is not gratuitous to think about the relationship that is established with his video installation Vigila [Vigil], where the candle is the predominant argument. Like that candle by Gerhardt Richter, a sublime allegory of painting, Giannotti thus approaches a baroque world, that reinforces a poetics that has always sought and found its main ally in light for reaching the unclassifiable, for revealing the occulted. Like a poem, we are interested in the frozen memory of objects, a set of images that seem to live in agony, suspended in time, like someone balancing between life and death, between what exists and

97of a candle might be seen as an erotic connection to death, like in Batailles philosophy; a death that is paradoxically the aroma of existence. Thus Marco Giannotti confesses his attraction for the abyss of exhibiting in a chapel, like Matisse, like Rothko, like Volpi. Because Marco Giannottis attitude itself has a lot to do with the historical relationship between painting and the architectural space. Giannotti knows and valorises the fact that Rothko, after visiting the Greek ruins of Paestum, confessed that he had been painting Greek temples all his life without realising it. We are talking about proportions, but above all about light and how it is revealed. The intensity of Giannottis chromatic descriptions allows one to understand that poetic condition that acts as a method of decision-making by an artist who, on the other hand, has always maintained a solid conceptual aura and critical dimension. Like someone granting power to memory, Marco Giannottis painting is born in the present without forgetting the past, like someone cleaning out a space in order to re-think its place. Because behind everything there will always be the question about what painting means and why one should carry on doing it.

It is as if Marco Giannotti were attempting to grant the light a physical feeling, as if it were a sort of body that allowed the painting to cast

becoming effective in the real space, converting its light into a vibrant environmental exercise. The colour, or more specifically its perception, leads to other perceptions and to a phenomenological exercise. The form, definitively at the service of the colour, projects the inner space of the painting into being a fragment of the real world.

All of these reasons and processes converge, almost like in a synthesis, in more recent series like Estructuras Espaciais I [Spatial Structures I] (1999), Relevos [Reliefs] (2000), Estructuras Espaciais II [Spatial Structures II] (2001), Passagens I [Passages I] (2003), Oleodutos [Oleoducts] (2005), Passagens II [Passages II] (2006) and Contraluz [Against the Light] (2009). A painting that is often reticular and flees from the cold in order to seek a warmer and ecstatic, emotional and rhythmic contemplation, seeking the chromatic vibration and that type of impure abstraction that hides apprehension of something, as subtle as it is fundamental. It is certainly a question of skin, of texture that almost turns the painting into a living being.

We are talking about a type of faded, lethargic painting. As if it wished to die. And the truth is that we have noted the possibility that a candle would blind the centre of his latest paintings; the light

function at the time when everyone draws up their own memories from it. And this has a lot to do with that which Nelson Brissac Peixoto stated about Marco Giannotti, asserting that his painting had to permanently fight against an absence of horizons and its sense of making: taking, painting, tearing, burning Giannottis canvases clearly allow one to see the several different layers that have accumulated on them, in the case of his faades evoking touches of Matisse or Morris Louis, as if the painting of someone like Peter Halley had come out of the wash and the colours had run. So it is easy to understand the vibrant nature of his Sala Vermelha [Red Room] (1994) or the later drippings that will make up his Templos [Temples] (1995) first, and chromatic mixes that will form his Crcere [Jail] (1996) and his series Cubato [Hut] (1996). Later on, his series Cromo (1997) more clearly reveals how for Giannotti the shapes emerge above all in order to summon up colour. Being faithful to the new sense of contemporary space as an unfolding, the forms that float in the space where we obviously see Halley but we also see a reference that is geographically closer which even today is still indispensable to his painting as is Volpi accompany the colour on this new mission to generate an atmosphere, to be a part of it in its structural condition capable of

98 Blanchot, disorientating them in their variability because they house an other time, not a fictional one, but that of pictorial narration, or, if one prefers, of the experience of conforming of norms destined to the unknown. Because time is experienced here. In Blanchot it is the time of the unheard-of and the unthinkable, of the dark, or, more specifically, of the absence of time or present without presence. The text dominates, the discourse wins and is imposed upon the subject. Like in Marco Giannottis seemingly fractal forms, everything overflows, even the edge itself, and the artist tattoos that reality, insisting on the poetic fragment, adding up another time, a virtual, imaginary one like the time of writing, aporetic as what is inherent to Blanchots writing, incapable of becoming definitively present. Like all educated painting.

In short we are talking about desire crystallised into painting. In his latest works, a series of railings found in the city of Sao Paulo that are printed on the canvas, imagination opens up the most unforeseeable paths. In a certain manner his landscapes and portraits are a sort of non-place, insofar as being an imaginary place or a deformed reality that only exists in the artists mind. Something like a journey that inhabits our life itself. I am thinking of all the places that

Peter Halley to Ian Davenport. He knows that the solutions are different but the problems are the same: light, space, time, colour, rhythm.

In the last exhibition by Marco Giannotti at the Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud I had the feeling that a strange light bathed the paintings. Later I noticed that the light had been absorbed by the paintings themselves. I felt as if that sort of beauty had been hurled into the emptiness, like that situation described by Borges in Los conjurados, I know that I have lost so many things that I could not count them all, and those losses, now, are all that is left to me. A type of condensed feeling, as if we felt a sort of myopia that veiled us in order to lead us to the ambiguity of the vastness that, as Rafael Argullol stated in relation to Romanticism, causes an indescribable nostalgia and at the same time an asphyxiating emptiness. But we could also think about how Deleuze pointed out that the baroque is not an art of structures but of textures, a proliferation of folds. A world of capturing rather than enclosing.

Marco Giannottis work plays with edges and fragments, with disorders and perversions, until it reaches an interesting state of suspension. I am thinking, for example, about how these works might compare to the stories of Maurice

of what is alien, superfluous and unnecessary to it. The skin would then be the tone, the vibration, colour as emotion and the form, inseparable on the other hand, would be the rational element in existence. In Marco Giannottis painting the stillness is the anamnesis of the classical, of that turns out in perfect order, but the exegesis of his work is revealed in the opposite, in the emotion that is confronted as a condition of that which is not resolved, of that place capable of vibrating in ones gaze.

Jos ngel Valente stated in a conversation with Antoni Tpies, creating means generating a state of availability, in which the first thing created is emptiness, an empty space. Finding that path in painting is only within the reach of those who understand it in a poetic code. But also those who know history and erase it in order to grant it new forms, like that gesture by Rauschenberg on De Koonings drawing. Marco Giannottis painting thus stands as an invisible palimpsest, although we are not able to see this at first glance. I am thinking of the ceiling in the painting Innenraum by Kiefer, and it is inevitable for me to associate this gaze to the latest works by Giannotti. Because Giannotti has the advantage of not trying to hide his references, from Brice Marden to Sean Scully, from Piero della Francesca to Rothko, from

99But if something is fundamental, as we were saying, in Marco Giannottis work, it is the importance of the light. Above all in his latest works, which are more wounded than ever. I am thinking of Turner, and of how John Berger tells us about a violence that is expressed by water, wind and fire, which on some occasions one would say is a quality that only belongs to light. Light devours the visible world and makes each one of Giannottis brush strokes vibrate and shine. His capacity to temper the painting as if it were a piano leads us into an abyss of the gaze, like that descent into the Maelstrm narrated by Edgar Allan Poe: At first I was too much confused to observe anything accurately. The general burst of terrific grandeur was all that I beheld. And that confusion takes place in Giannottis painting, where nothing is definitive and the colour reverberates, resounds, sifting through that time of mystery like that of a poem that has still to be illuminated.

someone like Ren Magritte may have imagined, even without ever leaving his own country. Or about Morandis refusal to travel. Or about how Kant gave the world a new philosophy without ever leaving Knigsberg. Marco Giannottis sterilised structures seem to vibrate even though they are still. Let us consider only the poetry as a form of still life by a Giorgio Morandi, of whom De Chirico himself will state that his gaze reserves the most intimate aspect for us, the structure of these dead things that seem to us to be more comforting in their stillness. Because Morandis intimate approach is more simple elegance, the product of a tranquil, discreet gaze, than an environment charged with literary metaphysics or psychologies. The unknown aspect of Morandis still-lifes has more to do with the tranquillity coming out of a Corot, a Vermeer or, particularly, a Chardin, given that for Morandi art had no other purpose than that which is implicit in the painting itself to a particular manner of projecting its reality. And in Marco Giannotti that reality is distilled from a network, which is sometimes subtle and sometimes dense, sometimes fine and sometimes thick, but always on the point of expiring at a given moment. It is as if thought and image had fused, as the product of a synthesis.

100 At first, what we see looks like an incompletely developed photographic negative: the image is not fully revealed. This draws us closer to the canvas in order to examine it, question it, in the hope that the image will be shown in its entirety. But this maneuver must be endlessly repeated, since the aesthetic action of Marco Giannottis painting consists precisely in sustaining an indefinite power of attraction that requires the perception to unceasingly correct and rechart its way. Just as the multiple forays of acrylic tempera are volatile, not managing to form layers, and therefore not acting as the glazings of traditional oil painting strangely, they are on the canvas but somehow lacking permanent status nor does our continuing attention gain consistency as it lingers. Rather, it is continuously called again, over and over, as though for the first time. Just as this painting does not yield up the image that it initially betokens, neither does it unveil the seductive interiority that can be glimpsed beneath its surface.

At this point it can be argued that no aspect of this chemistry is explosive. Even so, a language of contemporary painting that moves sincerely, consciously, almost compulsively between two poles as antagonistic as Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol is at least frankly assertive of its

problematic origin, assuming from the start the dilemma of its own becoming. And, from the standpoint of a cultured artist, a painter by vocation, there is nothing more logical. How to escape from Rothko, from the irresistible, perennial fascination of the most intransigent among the last high paintings of the Western tradition? And how to remain immune from Andy Warhol, the sovereign false demiurge of appearances, even until today, after half a century? It would be a little like ignoring, in their time, the tension between Plato and Protagoras.

It is true that Marco Giannottis rereading disregards the ideologies of the two artists production and their conflicting critical receptions, and is concentrated entirely on the problem of color. And even here the scope is restricted: it has more to do with the late and somber Rothko, much more to do with the Warhol of the Shadows series than any other. Which has everything, or nearly everything, to do with the material practice of painting. Translating into critical, discursive terms what takes place on the intuitive plane, in the artists own imagination, the question of color redefines and singularizes the conflict. After Warhol, is it still viable or feasible to seek for intrinsic color, color per se, with its autonomous aesthetic impact? Does Warhols down-to-

A SLOW GAZE, AND A FLUID ONE / Ronaldo Brito

101earth, extrinsic lightning a wise parody of the theater of the media achieve a similar reach, at one stroke summarizing two centuries of the free and eager modern chromatic adventure? The painters response comes, and can only come, through the reiterated investigation of color, through an investigation into the current conditions of its exercise; the response will come through the reiterated posing of the question.

And the task does not consist definitively in the simple conciliation of opposites and contraries. The challenge of this painting is to show itself at par with its disparate intuitions, to tense and bend, becoming contemporary with itself. For example, in the question of time. Visibly, within the same series, Marco Giannottis paintings tend to be particularized, that is, each one of them is subjectivized, thus demanding time to be approached aesthetically, requiring a slow and meditative gaze, which would never, however, end in the pure ecstasy of Rothko because they always come back around to posing the same initial question. In any case, neither do they involve skeptical suspension, the repetitive anonymous irony seen in Warhols series. Each painting fulfills its destiny here, even though it cannot fulfill it under the model of the whole unit.

There is moreover the crucial problem of light. Giannottis canvases seemed to emanate a substantive light, which they nearly distill, at the same time that they display a suspect phosphorescence, as though lit by some external, artificial lighting. The colors at times solemn and deep, recalling Rothkos last phase wind up being a bit deceiving, one step from parody, not believing in epiphanies. They are not so shallow and quick, certainly, as the strategically frivolous colors of Shadows colors which, the more we contemplate them, wishing to decipher them, the less we feel them. However, la Warhol, Giannottis paintings retain the memory of diffuse, somewhat out-of-focus images, as though taking leave of the extinct aura.

And, in fact, these canvases are printed and reprinted with the visible marks of the iron grids that the artist gathers at random in a city (So Paulo) where grids are ostensibly present. There is an irony in this allusion to a conspicuous idea in the jargon of the history of modern art: the legendary cubist grid. This is as far as we can take this line, however, since this irony is a kind of intimate stranger to the spirit of the work. In any case, a common urban element, from outside the studio, comes into the chemistry of the painting and indicates, at least, a certain

discomfort with its reclusive condition. The disperse images of these grids, overlain in ways by which they are blended and virtually self-nullified, thus function as weak structures in the artwork. In a colloquial tone, they express a profession of faith by the artist concerning contemporary painting: not even a window to offer a view, not even a conceptual, distanced autodemonstration, which is soon sterilized.

It is up to the canvas to reinvent itself, to rediscover itself, to act effectively amidst the inexorable all-over painting, to maintain itself open, intriguing yet elusive. And in this sense the return to oil is symptomatic, as a counterpart to the quicker acrylic tempera. Due to its delay in drying, the oil introduces a second, dense and doubtful moment, which is counterpoised to the volatile actions of the acrylic: the canvas returns back onto itself, mixing disparate times, thus retaining us, beckoning our dubious gaze.

102 EXPOSIES INDIVIDUAIS

1988 Galeria Paulo Figueiredo, So Paulo. FUNARTE, Rio de Janeiro.1990 Passrgada Arte Contempornea, Recife. Os sete dias da Criao, I.C.I., Buenos Aires.1991 Galeria Paulo Figueiredo, So Paulo Fundao Cultural de Curitiba.1993 Fachadas, MASP, So Paulo. 1994 Fachadas, Casa de Cultura Mrio Quintana, Porto Alegre.1995 Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro Galeria Camargo-Vilaa, So Paulo.1996 Crcere, Pao Imperial, Rio de Janeiro Crcere, Marina Potrich galeria, Goinia.1997 Cromos, Galeria So Paulo.1998 Circuitos, Pao das Artes, So Paulo. Circuitos, Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro.1999 Pinturas, Galeria So Paulo.2000 Relevos, Centro Universitrio Maria Antnia, So Paulo.2001 Pinturas, Galeria So Paulo.

MARCO GARAUDE GIANNOTTI / So Paulo, 1966

1031990 Brazil Projects 90, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles / MASP. I. Salo de Braslia. Panorama da Arte Atual Brasileira-Desenho, MAM, So Paulo.1991 Arte Contempornea Brasileira, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Estocolmo. BR/80 Ita galeria, So Paulo1992 Arte Brasileira: A nova gerao. Fundacin Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas. Programa de Exposio Arte Contempornea. Centro Cultural So Paulo. 13 Artistas Paulistas. Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro.1993 Panorama de Pintura. MAM, So Paulo.1994 Arte-Cidade: Cidade sem Janelas. Matadouro da Vila Mariana. So Paulo 4. Bienal de Cuenca. Equador.1996 Des-ex-plognio, exposio conjunta com Haroldo de Campos. Casa das Rosas. So Paulo Doao Paulo Figueiredo. MAM, So Paulo.

2003 Nenhuma distncia, nenhum Infinito. Espao Virglio, So Paulo.2005 Oleodutos, Galeria Virgilio, So Paulo.2007 Passagens, Pinacoteca do Estado2009 Quadrante, Centro Universitrio Maria Antnia, So Paulo

EXPOSIES COLETIVAS

1986 IX. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas, Rio de Janeiro.1987 II. Bienal de Cuenca, Equador. III. Salo Paulista.1988 X. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas, Rio de Janeiro.1989 10 Artistas, Rua Fortunato, So Paulo. 6 X Brasil, Galerie Raue, Bonn. Panorama da Arte Atua Brasileira-Pintura, MAM, So Paulo. O Pequeno Infinito e o Grande Circunscrito, Galeria ARCO, S.P. XI. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas, Rio de Janeiro. Arte Contempornea So Paulo: Centro Cultural So Paulo.

104 Casa: uma potica do espao, Museu da Vale do Rio Doce, Vitria.2005 Br 2005, Galeria Virgilio, So Paulo.2006 Ciccillo Acervo Mac USP. Ao mesmo tempo nosso tempo. Museu de Arte. S.P. Galeria Casa da Imagem. Curitiba. Paralela, Pavilho do Prodan/Ibirapuera, So Paulo.2007 Acervo do Mam na Oca, So Paulo.2008 Entre o plano e o espao. Galeria Raquel Arnaud. So Paulo 60 anos do MAM. Oca, So Paul Olhares cruzados, Galeria Casa da Imagem, Curitiba. Ano 01. Anita Schwartz Galeria de arte, Rio de Janeiro2009 Experincias Contemporneas Coleo MAC USP Coleo Vilaa. Espao Cultural Marcantonio Vilaa Braslia.

1997 Artista convidado para o programa de exposies do Centro Cultural S. Paulo.1998 Terra e mar vista. Instituto Ita cultural, So Paulo. Remetente. Espao Ulbra, Porto Alegre. City Canibal, Pao das Artes, So Paulo. Quase nada. Nassauicher Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Alemanha.1999 Galeria Casa da Imagem, Curitiba. II Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre.2000 Os anjos esto de volta, Pinacoteca de So Paulo. 2001 III Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre.2002 Amlcar de Castro / Tangncias, Espao Santander. Porto Alegre. ArteCidadeZonaLeste, Santurio So Jos do Belm, So Paulo. 28(+) Pintura, Espao Virglio, So Paulo2003 Aria galeria de arte, Recife. Marcantnio Vilaa Interfaces. Museu de Arte Contempornea de So Paulo.2004 Outro lugar. Espao Virglio, So Paulo Heterodoxia, Memorial da Amrica Latina, So Paulo.

105 PRMIOS

1986 Aquisio, 9. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas1987 Prmio Ivan Serpa. FUNARTE.1988 Aquisio, 10. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas. Aquisio, 2. Salo da Bahia.1990 Aquisio1. Salo de Braslia.1997 Prmio APCA Pintura. Obras em colees Pblicas Pinacoteca do Estado, So Paulo Museu de Arte de So Paulo. Museu de Arte Moderna de So Paulo. Museu de Arte Contempornea, So Paulo Fundao Armando Alvares Penteado, So Paulo. Museu de Braslia, DF. Casa de Cultura Mrio Quintana, Porto Alegre. Museu de Arte de Niteri (Coleo Joo Satamini) Instituto Cultural Ita, So Paulo.

Marco Giannotti - Pinturas e fotografias

Documents

Transcript of Marco Giannotti - Pinturas e fotografias