Gianni Mattò - Slaughter

Social themes in art began to gain prominence in the mid-19th century, coinciding with the spread of social questions throughout European societies. The work of painters such as Millet and Daumier, for example, favored subjects related to life in the fields, factory work, or strikes. In Italy, among the first painters to engage deeply with social themes were Pellizza da Volpedo and, in the contemporary era, Renato Guttuso. Gianni Mattò also falls into this category, and his favorite subjects were fishermen, depicted through his original and personal artistic language, which combines contemporaneity with an authentic and sincere description of a typical Sicilian reality.

Gianni Mattò's artistic production fits perfectly into a pictorial movement that combines realist themes with a predominantly expressionist language. Indeed, if the subject matter is the world of work and the working classes, the style calls for a synthetic interpretation of reality. In a two-dimensional space, everything is simplified to transfigure reality in an expressive and symbolic sense. The process of abstraction, therefore, is conducted by the painter to extract the essence from sensory data. The subject is thus resolved in a juxtaposition of chromatic zones, with vivid and brilliant colors, in which the volume of the subjects and their physiognomies is lost. In this way, Mattò creates an image charged with primary, immutable values, thanks to the expressive essentiality and chromatic strength. The compact application of color, reminiscent of Gauguin's à plat, is achieved through dense and full-bodied brushstrokes. The light invades the entire scene, further crystallizing it in a timeless dimension.

Gianni Mattò, born Gianni Tammaro, was a painter originally from the island of Favignana, where he was born in 1942 and passed away in 2021. Self-taught, Mattò drew scenes of marine life: fish, boats, fishermen from a young age. He opened his first studio on Favignana, and in the late 1980s, he was discovered by master Salvatore Fiume, who purchased one of his paintings. It was Fiume who arranged for Mattò's first exhibition in a Milan art gallery. He also involved him in his "Allianze Pittoriche" project, which sought to showcase, through collaboration, young and talented contemporary artists. Mattò was a unique naive artist, known by all as the painter of the mattanza.

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