Reviews
ELISABETTA FONTANA'S ECLIPTIC PAINTING.
SIGNS, SUBJECT-MATTER AND INTROSPECTION
INTIMA-MENTE
(INTI-MENTALLY)
Drama, torment, passion and silence envelope the canvases of the painter Elisabetta Fontana which, with effective emotional impetus pour onto the artistic image all its bristling sensations, suppressed for too long in the depths of the soul. Like water bursting through a dam, like a violent explosion of screams, the Parma artist's paintings break the boundaries of self-discipline, freeing the way for her to express her inner self in colours and material.
Personal drive and objective perceptions meet in the zeal of a stroke on febrile and atavistic surfaces. Anxiety and unhappiness protest against memories dampened by tears, against notions imbued with dismay and loaded with rage: it embodies instinctive defence, in praise of sentiment.
In the tortured impressions in "Waiting", Elisabetta Fontana shows us, with impressive truthfulness, the spectre of human anxiety, the trepidation of an evasive perception of time which is lifted to become an impression of transience in suspension. This theatre of material lumpiness expresses the existential tensions with intensity, emerging in the work entitled "Dancing Soul " where the sense of dynamism is given by an astute, swift brushstroke. The hazy colours of both paintings evoke a spiritual transition, something about to happen.
The extraordinary spectacle of layered crackling dominating the surface of many of Elisabetta Fontana's paintings, remind us of the complexities of life and marks the threshold of a probable afterlife, hovering between mystery and fact.
This ecliptic picture is invested with new meaning enhancing introspection, extracting the vital liquid and projecting it on the cosmic energy of artistic communication through accurate use of mixed technique.
The opaque surfaces of Fontana's canvases become spectral contexts and oppressive backdrops if you think that they are nothing more than a glaring reflection of the brave voyage into the artist's unconscious. Not by chance, it is a method of painting focussed on an essentially autobiographical expression, taken from twenty years' creative experience kept under lock and key in the chambers of her soul.
Elisabetta's painting is an externalisation of her thoughts translated into images, impressions and materials guided by an introspective search aspired by the need to learn about herself. It is an idea strengthened in art, a nervous wish to find its object space in reality.
It is the unsettling crackling on "Absence" and "Vortex" which prods our emotions, spasms of the soul reverberating in pathetic seconds or material acts and in deep red furrows crisscrossing the human universe in "Moments" and "Intima-mente", lacerations of the soul digging deep wounds, explore the archaeology of the mind, fissures in the body and soul, age-old wounds which can no longer heal.
The painting "Intima-mente" is the crucial knot in Elisabetta Fontana's painting, it is the hinge on which her entire artistic production rests. Here, the development and personal reworking of the concept of change is evident, interpreted as the irresistible metamorphosis of an internal state. On the soul's armoured surface, any existential variation is recorded and imprinted forever.
The artist's ecliptic production is, however, chromatically diluted in the paintings entitled "Flowing" and "Peace", where we experience the emotional blending of colour with the entire material structure, underlining the message of internal reconciliation and sentiments linked to mental tranquillity and serenity, achieved at a high price.
In short, Elisabetta Fontana's artistic direction unravels through daily turmoil, overcome by gaining a deep knowledge and reaching an internal balance, now strengthened by the numerous facets of personal existence.
These qualities are achieved through self-taught evolution with the support of a contemporary language and informal style leaning towards anti-academic experimentation and the rejection of current painting methods, founded on catharsis through signs.
November 2008
Sabrina Falzone
Art Critic and Historian
MATERIAL MOMENTS
Material moments are imprinted on Elisabetta Fontana's canvases like visual impressions of the Parma artist's introspections.
A theatrical echo emanates from her works, which exudes a particular creative sensitivity from which varied layers of emotion spring forth.
It is the material which talks with the spirit, while colour, spread transiently on the canvas, reverberates with sensations and moods which irreversibly seduce the observer, drawn by the riot of material on the painted surfaces.
Rough surfaces, saturated with emotion and crackled by time, represent the pictorial backdrop for Fontana's artistic studies, punctuated by gestures and signs which allow artistic energy to filter through and, above all, the internal harmonies and conflicts of a life which is continuously rediscovering itself.
As a self-taught artist, painting has become a channel of expression to communicate her inner being through her works of great visual impact.
This artistic review investigates the paths of the soul of a fine interpreter of the informal universe.
September 2009
Sabrina Falzone
Art Critic and Historian