Why did human beings create art?

What physical, psychological, inner need for survival drove us to trace the first symbols on a primitive rock, on the ground, in the mud? The adventure of contemporary art began there and perhaps it would be wise to remember that more often, in order to understand the results of today’s creations better.

Among them, the art works of Stefano VERONESI stand out thanks to their conceptual choice and symbolic language, because they are rooted in the ancient universe of Being and help us to recover its meaning and its emotion, its rationality and its passion. In Man’s desire to plan and guide his own existence and to portray it in primordial hunting scenes so as to exorcise fear and the unknown, one can glimpse the essence of art throughout Time: of medieval mystical spirituality, Renaissance celebratory monumentality, the daily and introspective realism of the seventeenth century, right up to the purest expression of the human soul, its profound character that contemporary art has been capable of revealing, with controversy, debate, ferocity, crudity and illusion.

This is also true for Stefano VERONESI who, by crossing the borders between knowledge and art, is capable of narrating the flesh and soul of the world, the rationality and science that guide human beings. He does this by seeking the perfect synthesis between instinct and reason, giving a colour and a symbol, alternately, to fancy and imagination, or to a rigorous vision of the cycles of existence. This is how Limen and Streamers came about: in the former, the artist crosses the border of the individual and of existence, through symbolic paintings that allude to contact, to a journey, to the connection between peoples and people. A ‘limen’ is a barrier, but borders – by their very nature – are also points of contact, of exchange between cultures and communication with those near to us, out of choice or necessity: a lesson one should reflect on in the light of modern society and something that Veronesi
interprets by allowing us to turn the work horizontally or vertically, because reality should never be viewed from just one point of view. In contrast, Streamers are a flow of coloured, spiritual energy, halfway between photography and painting. In the freedom of the compositional structure, what is achieved is the natural harmony of nature, that flow of spiritual lifeblood that animates and creates everything around us. In this way, Veronesi depicts the universal in every detail, the objective in the subjective, finding a point of contact between perceivable reality and elusive – yet tangible – spirituality. This must be the expressive need referred to earlier, the desire to express Mankind in its entirety, in its complex and never identical identity, intimate and unique.

With his latest experiments, Veronesi successfully tackles the difficult challenge of combining both aspects in his research. In Rotoli d’Arte, a painting becomes a canvas that unwinds its two sides: an emotional side with free-flowing colour and a rational side with its shades that, guided by reason, create and construct solemn structures. The canvas can be placed as one likes, on a wall like a conventional painting or hung from the ceiling like an installation, light and imperceptible... like a thought, like an idea.

‘These works of art should be experienced in both their aspects,’ says Veronesi, ‘like our brains’ perception of the world: right side and left side. There is no front or back, but simply alternating perspectives that are interchangeable and can be wound around each other, giving a new view of perceived reality every time.’

A myriad universes, infinite tools, worlds of ideas and emotions allow Stefano Veronesi to create deep impressions every time and place him, without a shadow of a doubt, among the most interesting exponents of the international contemporary art scene.

Giornalista e Critico d’Arte
Guido Folco