Pierluigi Romani - FATS WALLER

Portraiture is one of the most widespread artistic expressions, especially in painting, but also in sculpture, throughout the ages. Portraiture is, first and foremost, a description of the subject depicted, an attempt to capture their physiognomy and individual characteristics truthfully and naturally. With the progressive evolution of artistic research, the physiognomic description of the subject has also been accompanied by a psychological one. Therefore, over the centuries, portraiture has also become a means of introspective investigation of the subject, their character, and their state of mind. The processes of abstraction brought about by contemporary art have contributed to this type of investigation.

The work is a prime example of Pierluigi Romani's style, distinguished by a profound exploration of the representation of the human figure, constantly balancing the rendering of sensory information with a pronounced, almost dramatic, existentialist component. This is evident from the compositional conception of the work, which presents the subject completely decontextualized against a neutral background. This surface is the object of the artist's pictorial gestures, which clearly draw upon an abstract-expressionist aesthetic in the agitated, instinctive application of color, even leaving traces of dripping. The subject's head appears in this already dramatic context, merging with the pictorial space. Only the face is characterized with physiognomic precision, highlighting its somatic features and expressive traits. This process is carried out in such a vibrant and lively pictorial manner that the artist's intent to communicate a powerful existential message through this representation is clear. It almost seems as if the subject is corroding, in a highly introspective reading of the human figure that certainly brings echoes of Francis Bacon's dramatic expressionism/surrealism.

Pierluigi Romani was born in Lucca in 1936. In 1956, he began his involvement in Italian art, a practice that has continued uninterruptedly to the present day with his participation in art exhibitions, national awards, group and solo shows, fairs, and exhibitions. In the 1950s and 1960s, he lived in Milan, where he came into contact with the experiences of the historical avant-garde. In June 1962, he visited Venice to visit the XXXI International Art Biennale, where he discovered the work of A. Giacometti. Starting from Naturalism (1956–1958), which he transcended and reworked in a fusion of subject and atmosphere, he then perceived new needs and, through a process that gradually matured, arrived at the modules of Geometric Abstraction (1958–1960). Towards the end of 1964, his style underwent a shift towards the language of New Figuration (1965–1977), adhering to a figurative realism of existential and social commitment. Between 1977 and 1989, new visions emerged that branched out into the realm of the Surreal and the Fantastic.

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