Biography
LUIGI GIACOBBE: A SENSORIAL PAINTING EXPERIENCE.
The gesture comes first. The action precedes the symbolic act in the hands of painting and writing, because it is a physical need. To leave a mark is a spontaneous gesture, which involves the body before the mind. Overlaying, elevating, defining and removing are all subsequent actions. The sign conveys the feelings of the soul. On canvas, the inner language takes shape, in perfect harmony with the medium that one decides to use. By standing in front of Luigi Giacobbe’s paintings, it becomes clear that art is always a spontaneous and inevitable triangulation among the work, the person who has artistically produced it, and those who observe it. Each work of art in front of which we choose to linger – at this precise moment in history – does nothing but talk about us, of who we are, and of whom we have decided to be or no longer be. Regardless of aesthetics preferences, artists like Luigi Giacobbe have the ability to reflect on the evocative power of art, and on how art unconsciously leads us back to our own self. For the artist, the finished work is not an object that he simply intends to display, but the beginning of a possible dialogue that wants to raise questions, possibilities for research and occasions for knowledge. The central theme of the artist’s work seems to be the continued reflection on the evolution of the soul and on its many facets. One gets the impression that Giacobbe has allowed the words to rest in himself, that he wants to show us that what is inside is also outside, and that to recognize oneself as a living part of a living whole leads to the definition of one’s own individuality, allowing it to harmonize with the universe. If, "the greatest results have been reached by those who do not get tired of investigating and processing all the aspects and modifications of an only experience, of an only experiment, taking into account all possibilities," Giacobbe’s artistic experience seems to insist on following this way to show the way in which what appears as customary and obvious, is in reality not at all like that. Intense rhythms and overlays give primitive energy to his compositions, creating spaces that allow a view on a soul that is supported by artistic necessity; painted textural layers alternate on the canvas, narrating the story of a man who is confronted with himself and with the overflow of his own emotions, which have to be channeled through technical experimentation. The canvas stops being a canvas and becomes a person, capable of periodically changing to evolve towards a clearer definition of itself: among sinuous lines, changes find space within uncertain horizons; junctures of colour wait for the eye to find its way; marked traces wait to be interpreted. Through its artistic work, Luigi reveals to the public how art, communicating through forms and signs, can be an expression of the richness of human soul. The artist seems to have absorbed the lesson dictated by the previous century, in which visual languages broke free from pre-established formal schemes, giving away new possibilities of expression to the artist, and aesthetic
experiences profoundly different from the past to the viewer. The opportunity to investigate suggestions given by the matter could not leave the artist – a painter with a lively personality characterized by careful sensitivity – indifferent. The contemporary approach allows Giacobbe to investigate new expressive developments by focusing on the creation of works that appear as real projections of his own inner life. A vivid imagination drives the artist to measure himself up against different techniques, leaving the expressive tension intact and evident. Deconstructions and textural and tonal layers guide the search among the compositional elements, which – once deeply investigated – suggest to the viewer new opportunities for relationship with oneself and with the world. Without any hesitation, Luigi Giacobbe put himself to the test of different artistic languages: his experience is a personal and thoughtful dialogue with the matter and with himself, even before becoming a relationship with the other. The aesthetic components of his artistic process offer the means to not stop and observe life superficially: the artist invites us to communicate with reality by observing its details, until the work of art appears as totally new from what we saw at a first glance. If it were to happen in the halls of the art gallery, in our home or in his studio, the conversation with the paintings of Luigi Giacobbe becomes an intense sensorial and emotional experience, firmly intertwined with the roots of our truest essence.
