Giovan Battista De Andreis - The Straw Basket

The "Still Life" genre emerged in the early 17th century. It consisted of compositions of inanimate subjects, most often flowers or fruit. While initially it was an opportunity for painters to experiment with naturalistic or photographic reproductions of reality, with contemporary art, the "Still Life" also became a way of interpreting reality. Indeed, as happened, for example, in the Cubist avant-garde or in Giorgio Morandi, the in-depth exploration of objects was aimed at a conceptual representation, taken beyond the mere sensory element. For an artist whose work was strongly focused on the investigation of forms and the exaltation of plasticity, such as Giovan Battista De Andreis, still life is a recurring subject (especially in his engravings).

This etching demonstrates how Giovan Battista De Andreis's style always straddles the object's phenomenological reality (what we can experience through our senses) and its noumenal reality (what we can explore through our intellect). Indeed, his drawing structure is extremely solid, anchored to the perceptible world before his eyes. However, his interpretation of this fruit basket demonstrates that his perception of the object, and especially of the object in space, transcends the phenomenon. Indeed, the representation is conducted along multiple directional lines, according to a non-univocal perspective. In this way, the structures of things are explored more deeply, breaking them down within the complex space created by the artist. This is particularly evident in the execution of the tablecloth, whose folds gradually arrange themselves on different planes. Furthermore, in De Andreis's still lifes, we always find a pure, almost geometric form that overrides the representation of the objects. Everything is supported by the artist's extraordinary technique, in a representation that reaches the heights of hyperrealism.

Giovan Battista De Andreis was born in Badalucco in 1938. In 1958, after graduating from high school, he moved to Milan, where, thanks to Scanavino, he met the leading artists of the Milanese avant-garde. From the 1960s, De Andreis developed his own artistic language, inspired by surrealism and metaphysical painting. His first exhibition in Milan, in 1966, increased his fame, along with a succession of awards, such as the "La Notte 1967" and the "Panizza 1967" prizes, with juries presided over by Bruno Cassinari. Exhibitions followed in Milan, Turin, Brussels, and Amsterdam. His participation in exhibitions in Krakow, Buenos Aires, Katowice, and Milan earned him the "Recommended Artist 1978" award from the Bolaffi della Grafica. From 1984 to 1996, he held solo exhibitions in Rome, Milan, Palermo, Catania, Monte Segale, Nardò, Imperia, and Diano Castello. Added to those of the Maison de la Culture Woluwé-Saint-Pierre in Brussels, the Galleria Il Magnifico in Chianciano (in partnership with Ibrahim Kodra), and the Museo del Sannio in Benevento.

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