Text for the work exhibited in the MOOD, Subjectivity, Introspection, Self-awareness Collective “The Polyptych of Death”

MOOD, SUBJECTIVITY, INTROSPECTION, SELF-AWARNESS

A very profound and conceptual artist, the painter from the Marche Stefano Garbuglia always loves to deal with difficult and complex themes, combining unconventional aesthetic research with a reflection free from preconceptions on all the phenomena of human existence, always trying to trace the roots of each of its manifestations . The work we present in this catalog is one of the most recent, the Polyptych of Death, which is made up of five canvases, each with its own title, from left to right, from top to bottom: “La Perdita”, “Altri Rameggi, “L'Ineluttabile”, “Un Altrove”, “La Visita”. It is a real tragedy in five acts, according to the classic scheme inherited from the Greeks, having as its theme the mystery that has always fascinated and terrified man: Death. Whether it is considered the end of everything, or whether it represents a form of transition to another level of existence, death always represents an event of capital importance in the life of every human being, the arrival point of a path that it acquires a “sense” at the moment of its conclusion, or rather precisely by virtue of it. The thought of death and the idea of ​​the transience of existence actually allow us to identify the priorities to be established within the tangled skein of events and to understand which values, things, desires and objectives are most relevant, attributing a real value to our time. The presence of death, therefore, helps not to make anything absolute and to reduce things due to their transience and precariousness. For this reason, perhaps, in the eternal carnival of the current global hedonistic society, the idea of ​​death is exorcised and put aside, as if it did not concern us. And when it suddenly hits us or those close to us, we are not prepared to face it and we are crushed and annihilated. The philosopher Michel de Montaigne is therefore right when he writes that reflecting on dying means reflecting on the meaning of living: "The end of our race is death, it is the necessary object of our aim: if it scares us, how is it possible to do a step forward without agitation?”. In the same way, the philosopher Heidegger states that facing the idea of ​​death on a daily basis helps to look at existence in an authentic way, distinguishing what is negligible and superficial from what is instead essential and profound. Finally, the awareness of death can lead us to face the mystery of life and to face the idea of ​​the absolute and transcendence, identifying some form of finalization that helps to think of it as a springboard towards Eternity. This long introduction, in reality, has the aim of preparing us to face the reading of the five parts of which this polyptych is composed, the purpose of which is precisely to stimulate a reflection on death, not through an orderly and consequential sequence of elements, but through the presentation of some fragments, sometimes apparently insignificant, which generate in us the disposition to tackle this topic problematically. In the first canvas, "La Perdita", the progressive fading of the female figure, whose face with sunken eyes is livid, alludes to the precariousness and transience of existence, also suggested by the circling red butterflies, which bring to mind the idea of ​​joy of living, but also that of brevity and the ephemeral. After all, every day of life is a step closer to death. In the second, "Altri Rameggi", magnolia flowers on the branches still numb from the freezing winter are another example of the wonderful precariousness of life: some still in bud, others about to bloom, others already in bloom and ready for the inevitable withering. We therefore see the same theme of the previous canvas transferred to another form of existence, the vegetal one, but treated with poetic lightness. The third canvas, "L'Ineluttabile", presents us with a body that is already a corpse, as suggested by the livid color of the skin and the position of the hands with the palms outstretched, almost as if the body were already housed in a shroud. The idea of ​​the end announced analogically by the twilight background, by the yellowed shrub with folded leaves and in a state of progressive drying, by the sun obscured by an eclipse: death here becomes a phenomenon that concerns all the manifestations of life in the universe . Note the black gauze materially applied to the canvas covering the woman's face, indicating the total annihilation of life in her body and the darkening of her conscience. In the fourth, "Un Altrove", the face of the woman depicted looks east, towards Jerusalem, to indicate, according to a liturgy widely adopted in the Middle Ages, the idea of ​​waiting for death. A swarm of locusts hovers around her, which in the Bible and in the Latin patristic tradition have multiple allegorical meanings, which refer in one sense to the destructive voracity of passions, which is contrasted, in a paradoxically reversed eschatological perspective, with the idea of who, on the Day of Judgment, will turn to a better reality, abandoning past errors. “La Visita”, the last canvas of the polyptych, perhaps the most evocative, opens a passage between life and death. The two hands of the deceased emerge from a glimmer of light, as if wanting to overcome the darkness of death and establish contact with those who are still alive. The offering of a sprig of orange flowers, in which life still pulsates, perhaps represents a touching invitation from the deceased to those who are still alive to maintain a bond, even if tenuous, with her and with that desire for eternity that in she remains beyond death.

Cosimo Strazzeri
(School Headmaster and Art Critic)

Text for the works exhibited in the Eikòn Collective, the Ways of Portrait "Santa Lucia" "Fireflies Never Leave" "Eikòn"

EIKÒN THE WAYS OF PORTRAIT
Stefano Garbuglia's works are based on a careful bibliographic and iconographic reconstruction of historical and anthropological sources. We are therefore dealing with an artist who does not propose an exclusively decorative aims, but tends to offer images that are expertly conceived and designed, in which each element is not random, but corresponds exactly to objective data, whose historical truth is indisputable. A first example of this philological rigor is the work Santa Lucia which, according to what the artist explains in a note, "reinterprets the martyrdom of the saint by tracing the classical iconography, despite being dressed only in the veil of Christian passion". Fidelity to the hagiographic sources, therefore, but at the same time a courageous evasion of traditional iconography, showing the virgin martyr in the splendor of her naked body which remained chaste and inviolate, despite the threats of the Prefect Pascasio to have her taken to a brothel. The desire to get out of the mere two-dimensional representation is instead manifested in the pierced canvas in correspondence with the stab infixed by the executioner in Lucia's throat (iugulatio). Thus, according to the artist, a dialogue is generated between the painting and its support, which participate in the narration of martyrdom. Another example is represented by Fireflies Never Leave (The fireflies never leave), in which Garbuglia refers to a folkloric tradition of central-west Africa, according to which, the author informs us, a vampire named Adze , which prowls in the guise of a firefly, regains human form when caught. Equally rigorous, in Eikòn, is the reference to iconoclastic instances, tending to oppose religious worship and the use of sacred images, which manifested themselves in the Eastern Empire between the eighth and ninth centuries. In this work, as the artist suggests, «the haloed figure appears disfigured by a violent iconoclastic act and is represented intent on grasping the nature of the damage directed towards her own face, which appears hollowed out and disfigured in a depersonalizing fury». At the same time, however, continues Garbuglia, "the delicate gesture of the hands, and the lithe attitude of the body, betray a subtle eroticism, casting the shadow of ambiguous satisfaction". Sacred and profane, therefore, coexist within the same figure, to underline the ambiguity, plurivocity and polysemy of each image. Also for this reason the work was chosen as the logo for this exhibition, which essentially aims to reflect on the possible values ​​of any representation of the human figure.

Cosimo Strazzeri
(School Headmaster and Art Critic)

Text for the winning work of the fourth edition of the Michele Cea Prize "Luca 23:34"

CONTEMPORARY MARTYRS
Beyond all political and religious beliefs, without distinction of race, Stefano Garbuglia's work is a manifesto of destinies and misfortunes. The visual image becomes sound in that emergency whistle of life jackets hanging on the nail of martyrdom. The picture, a magnetic field of lives lost and found, tragic in the lucid and detailed oil painting, is illuminated by a supernatural light, a spotlight that lights up the current news in the heart of the beholder. The boundary between life and death, between salvation and eternal damnation, between memory and oblivion thus travels on the emotional waves of an upset universe. The thought of Pablo Picasso comes to mind who during the dark period of the Second World War defined the value of being an artist in this way: «What do you think an artist is! An imbecile who has only eyes if he is a painter, only ears if he is a musician and if he is a poet a lyre at all levels of his heart? On the contrary, he is at the same time a political being, constantly vigilant in the face of the heartrending, ardent or sweet events of the world, modeling himself completely in their image. How would it be possible to be disinterested in other men? And by virtue of what ivory indifference would one detach oneself from a life that men themselves give so generously? No, painting is not meant to decorate apartments, it is an offensive and defensive tool of war against the enemy». Yes... How would it be possible to be disinterested in other men? Stefano raises his voice, demands that the observer come closer, listen to that passage from Luke "Father, forgive them, because they don't know what they are doing" and think, think deeply, reacquiring a critical conscience that now seemed lost among the waves of Erebus .

Massimiliano Porro
(Professor of Art History)