This 2-person show entitled "THE TRUTH REVISITED: BEYOND the WALLS, the BORDERS, the OCEAN, the DISTANCE Separating TWO PAINTERS An Exhibit About the SEARCH for 'IL VERO' " features works by Jerry Ross and Clarice Zdanski (Clarice lives in Milano). This exhibit of works document the research of two painters who, using the approach to European painting of late 19th Century, especially influences from the "I Macchiaioli" school, have found a direction and have applied these ideas to produce a powerful new statement.
Just as at the end of 1850, a group of young painters in Florence began to get together to oppose the academic approach by meeting at the Caffè Michelangelo, so now we too meet at Barios to keep the discussion alive.
They were the "Macchiaioli" because they used "spots" of color to accentuate the chiaroscuro abandoning the idea that "drawing" should necessarily precede the application of color. Like them, we too chose to paint in plein air or from the live model, an essential prerequisite to studying the effect of light.
I am from "mighty" Oregon where nature is still strong and vital. I am inspired by the mountains, clouds, and weather formations as well as by Italy and my Italian friends and acquaintances that appear on my canvases after every trip. My wife, Angela, and I have a special relationship with Loiano (Emilia Romagna) where soldiers from Oregon fought in the Appenines (the WWIIGothic Line) and who return, year after year, to the scene of many battles.
The young Macchiaioli studied French artists such as Ingres, Corot and Delacroix. The young painters included Telemaco Signorini and Serafino De Tivoli, Cristiano Banti , and Vincenzo Cabianca. They were Vito D‚Ancona, Raffaello Sernesi, Giuseppe Abbati and Odoardo Borrani, and Giovanni Fattori.
I study the Macchiaioli as well as the "post-Macchiaioli" painters (1880-1920) students of Fattori, Lega, and Tommasi. Painters like Egisto Ferroni, Niccolò Cannicci, Ulvi Liegi, Francesco Gioli, Adolfo, Angiolo e Ludovico Tommasi ,Giorgio Kienerk, Plinio Nomellini and Raffaello Gambogi as well as the "Labronici" group: Benvenuto Benvenuti ,Mario Cocchi, Cafiero Filippelli ,Giovanni Marzo, Renato Natali, and Gino Romiti. There are too many list completely.
I prefer portraiture, landscape, and figurative painting. I began as a student of Rubens and Rembrandt and later discovered Frans Hals and his loose brush. I then became a student of Sebastiani Rcci and Veronese. Most recently I have returned to looking at Corot and Manet. I like to paint in a fluid, painterly style that is true to the subject matter. I also appreciate the great master painters of chiaroscuro such as Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio and, among the Macchiaioli, Telemaco Signorini (1835-1901).
In recent years, after several exhibits in Italy (Milan, Bologna, Rome), I have discovered the social verismo painters such as Umberto Coromaldi (Camicie Rose, 1898) and Pietro De Francisco (La Rivolta). I teach a class in Oregon called "social verismo" and we now have a small group of eight or nine of us who consider one another to be part of this tradition that began with the Macchiaioli and verismo painters of Italy.
Our manifesto goes something like this: "In this age of political darkness let us strive for truth and veracity in our art without sacrificing spirituality, poetry, and spontaneity. In an age of technological control, let us try to capture the natural, the free, and the soulfulness of both nature and humanity. Ours is a revolutionary art in full revolt against the State, bourgeois taste, and cultural degeneration. We are a band of painters living as authentically as we can in the midst of full blown capitalist hegemony. Make art not war."
- Jerry Ross
Jerry has been a Premiere Portfolio Artist at absolutearts.com since 2000. View more of his work at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/r/rossjerry/.
IMAGE
Jerry Ross
"Near Brownsville"
oil painting 2004
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