Paolo De Cuarto - Last Tango in Paris

The work we are viewing is titled "Last Tango in Paris." In this painting, De Quarto depicts an elegant female figure appearing from the right side of the canvas. Her dress and elegant black glove offer a glimpse of the visual impact the artist's Spanish sojourn must have had. The background of the painting is divided into two vertical bands, one white and the other black, against which the figure stands out. The face, which appears almost pained and resigned, along with the gesture and the title of the work, evokes the closing of a door, a farewell, the dramatic final act of a love story.

In this 2017 work, Paolo De Quarto breaks away from the medium for which he is best known, a style that draws heavily on his mentor and friend Mimmo Rotella. While he often references signs and posters, in this case he has chosen to create a more classical figurative representation. It seems to recall his early work and the textured painting he practiced in his early years. His painting harks back to Pop Art, the simplified and graphic depiction of the female figure in all its elegance, limited to almost cartoonish devices. He uses only three colors—white, red, and black—that harmonize with each other and enhance the painting. Overall, the depiction is very flat and does not use chiaroscuro effects, thus giving the impression of stenciling, almost like graffiti.

Paolo De Cuarto was born in Catanzaro in 1972. He grew up in a family of five sons; being the fourth, he took his stage name from that.

His first pictorial experiments took place in Calabria, where he began his exploration of the use of color and other material devices to enhance the image's plasticity. A key moment in the development of his artistic practice was 1994, the year he moved to Milan and began frequenting the Brera Academy and the historic Bar Jamaica, a key venue for Milanese artists since the 1950s. He subsequently moved to Spain, but returned to Milan after only three years. By this time, having gained both experience and artistic vision, he began working with Milan-based artists, including Mimmo Rotella, becoming his artistic assistant. The Maestro had a profound impact on his "true artistic formation," as De Cuarto calls it. The intellectual and artistic partnership dissolved in 2002 when De Cuarto began to work independently. Since then, he has enjoyed great success with both national and international audiences, and his works decorate homes and galleries worldwide.

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