Tonino Caputo - Venerating the Monolith

The urban landscape was already a popular subject in the Middle Ages and the Modern Era, but predominantly in an idealized manner. Scenes of city life became typical themes with a more realistic interpretation starting in the 19th century. It's worth remembering how, immediately following the realist movements of the 19th century, the Impressionists also placed great emphasis on the everyday, on everyday life, with a certain predilection, however, for the frenetic pace of the city, crowds, traffic, and typically bourgeois settings. The urban landscape in Tonino Caputo's paintings, however, has specifically American connotations. This can be seen not only in the choice of subjects, but also, and above all, in the manner in which they are depicted, according to a realism tinged with subtle metaphysical overtones, a distinctly American style, inspired by a master like Edward Hopper.

Tonino Caputo is a devotee of the urban landscape, which always plays a central role in his work. Caputo particularly favors views of New York, where old structures from the late 19th century still mingle with the skyline of more modern skyscrapers. What unites them all is the absolute formal and compositional purity that distinguishes this artist's work. The depiction of buildings generates, on the surface of the work, a system of lines, perfectly perpendicular intersections, and impeccable perspectives. Caputo's works are rational grids whose beauty lies in their perfection. This same perfection is also found on the formal level, given the hyperrealist language, of notable technical prowess, that characterizes Tonino Caputo's style. However, despite this perfection, the artist indulges in a certain atmosphericism, derived from the quality of the metropolitan air and detectable in the surfaces of the objects. Thus, the pictorial layering achieves a highly controlled disintegration of forms that makes the representation more vibrant with existentialism, consistent with the American realist tradition.

Tonino Caputo was born in Lecce in 1933. He is a painter as well as a set designer. He graduated in Architecture in Rome and initially gravitated towards Informal Art, exhibiting in 1958 with Mimmo Rotella, Carla Accardi, and Corrado Cagli. In the late 1960s, he worked as a set designer for Carmelo Bene's performances. In 1972, he participated in the theater section of the Venice Biennale with the sets for Franco Cuomo's "Egloga." His works are held in public and private collections in Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, England, Sweden, Denmark, Israel, the United States, Argentina, and Australia.

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