Transcends reality to create pure emotion
When confronted with the works of Silvia Martignago one is immediately engaged by a vision of rich colors of great intensity and richness of tone which, however, does not
prevent us to grasp the character that sets her apart: being, that is, an artist who is totally immersed in the profound heritage of the art of the Veneto region. She is deeply convinced that
she can express herself in totality, because the foundation on which she roots her thoughts and action must be able to tell the "truth", the whole truth of her soul. In this manner, as is this
case for other expressions of human action, the art of Silvia Martignago has a fundamental mission, to excite and transmit a message rich in positivity.
But this is not essential; what matters in art is the fact that the representation stimulates participation, that is to say, a certain emotion and what matters above all is the ability to shed
light on reality, on that reality that passes before our eyes, which is very often dull, mundane and unremarkable. It is a reality which we do not know how to observe, which we have become used
to, and which the artist invites us to look at in a different manner. Without forgetting that works of art speak of their authors, they introduce us to understanding their inner world and reveal
their original offering to the "history of culture". The same approach is used by Silvia Martignago whose art is in a sense a metaphor for life and, at the same time, a kind of roadmap towards the
search of its finitude. Her painting is a kind of, very creative, at times absorbing, mental "journey" which is always free of any linguistic chains; it is a curious world, that brings us closer
to the richness of a world deeply ifused with beliefs.
Hers is a "natural" painting, comprising deep expressive signs that transmit emotion, but emotion in its purest form. It teaches us that the search for beauty in everyday things undoubtedly helps
us live better. All this appears clearly from this new cycle where she demonstrates an extraordinary creative vitality, almost as if to emphasize that «the art - as held by George Sand - is not a
study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth». A journey of reflection, therefore, a sort of narrative, like a reporter following an emotional itinerary; an apparent expressive
memory of a past life and a way to live the present. This is how Silvia Martignago can say that painting, full of vivid and vibrant colours, gives strength to the "narration" of the canvas. She
has completed her artistic research with locations which are not abstract, creating spaces which are the expansion of lines which overlap, intertwine, and destroy themselves. At the same time,
attempting to convey a new idea of environment where, with the help of her technique, the dusty soft light connects with forms capable of regenerating and modifying themselves continuously,
creating passages, and openings. And finally, overlapping veils of colours which intensify the boundaries and blur the edges: thus achieving a renewed identity of images. Her painting leaves
no space for contingency, and, in contrast of today's difficulties in exteriorizing profound feelings, she places the sensitive component right at its very centre; expressing the seed from which
thoughts and emotions grow, calling for an immediate response. Starting from the awareness of the shadows that still need to be illuminated by semblances of life. And the sensitive tension, in the
way she utilizes the stroke, is even more evident in her decision to match paintings to a difficult but rewarding journey, whereby the cognitive sensation is as important as the harmonization
which completes the composition. The eye is forced to look away, while the signs overlap resulting in an idea, full of infinite possibilities of expansion, made tangible.
From these images stem recollections of broad visions, of infinite spaces; those colours in which we find those masses of energy, dig deep within and during her inner journey, the artist finds herself
and, thus, a series of evocations emerge which reconnect, deep down, linking a chain of memories. They are only tracks, to follow, to decipher in their existential secret "codes"; tracks that already
alone bring a wealth of meanings. The artist has pushed forward her search for that point where vibration becomes sound, music, word.
In her there is a desire to conquer a perspective which can elevate above the day-to-day, searching to better organize her ideas. After all no one likes to describe or give a particular definition of
themselves, because, as we know, only by playing through her various manifestations, can an artist capture the complex structure and dynamics of contingent and multiple truths, of what relates to
her own art which is always evolving, it is history and "logos" of the spirit of the world. From a first analysis, her language of artistic expression appears: magical, narrative, dreamlike, as well
as possessing great communicability and emotional weight to the emanating force, where there is a synthesis of movement and simplicity of gesture, capable of creating an opportunity for dialogue.
Her depictions are immersed in a timeless land and derive from the comparison with the memory and the world of ideas associated also to a symbolic value, with a new freedom of expression.
This is how Silvia Martignago lets us into her world and thanks to her skillful technique, in which material and colour prevail, where both these elements, pictorial technique and material, ensure
that the light is absorbed, as if it were the object itself to attract it. While the 'laud' of color drenched in light, strong and bright, expressed with warm sulfur yellows, with passionate bloody
reds, with boundless blues of acoustic depth, all rich in their chromatic exuberance, but also the purples and greens offer poetic sentiment and provoke stimulating and emotional alternatives for
the soul, and reproduce sounds and silences in which there is so much exhilarating poetry, affirming an idea that penetrates and investigates in this reality and its images.
After all: «describing the world, more or less, through universal experiences and feelings, rather than through things is the duty of art. If this happens, and if you are able to put together your
own story by looking at a composition, means that the image is alive as it should be».
Mario Guderzo | Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova - Musei Civici di Bassano del Grappa
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LANDSCAPES: Transcends reality to create pure emotion
MUSEO GYPSOTHECA ANTONIO CANOVA
