GIANFRANCO ASVERI - "And His Little Animals" by casatiartecontemporanea

GIANFRANCO ASVERI And His Little Animals

GIANFRANCO ASVERI: And His Little Animals 15 March - 20 April, 2019 ZZHK Gallery 3 Wa Lane, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong www.zzhkgallery.com

Fotography Francesca Longoni Cover Favole in viaggio, 2019

GIANFRANCO ASVERI And His Little Animals

The Day the Dog Caught the Car 那天，狗追上他的車 Lee du Ploy

ARTWORKS 作品

Biography 藝術家簡介

Gianfranco Asveri in his studio

THE DAY THE DOG CAUGHT THE CAR Lee du Ploy I met Gianfranco Asveri 27 years ago when a friend and I drove along the dirt road leading to his studio. We stopped the car and walked the last stretch which was then a secluded cul-de-sac with only a few neighbours in a wintry village in Italy that you often see on vintage postcards. The studio was extraordinary, like a Fellini film, winter sun shone on walls caked with years of splattered paint. I could sense the deep history of endeavour the walls paid testimony to. The other rooms were neat with simple furniture and books of poetry on bookshelves lining the walls. In stark contrast to the studio where organized chaos ruled and where he brought forth his extraordinary paintings. Asveri wore a balaclava with just his eyes showing to stem the freezing winds that blew with vengeance through the unglazed windows of the studio. Stoic in his stance that what matters is not the cold but the ability to create under difficult conditions. Dogs which feature often in his paintings lay scattered like cushions at various ports, seeking out the little sun that bled through the windows, staring at him contently with the knowledge that they were now safe after he had found them abandoned on a road somewhere left by a callous owner who had lost patience with them . His love of dogs and wounded strays have paved the way for us to acknowledge that his religion is kindness, he does what he can with love and little apology.

Initially when seeing Asveriâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works they seem humorous and light, this is only so because of the subject. Texture which is intrinsic to our psyche is the nature to convert a simple message with clarity and direction to meaning, it conveys the message with attitude and as we all know attitude correctly manifested creates great painting. In order to do this with confidence you need to be dedicated to the extreme, and to make your art your life. This is what Asveri has achieved. If I was finally asked to describe Asveri, I would suggest he would be the kind of person who would slow down his car for the dog to catch it. Written in Hong Kong in December, 2018

ZZHK Gallery, Hong Kong

那天，狗追上他的車二十七年前，我見到詹弗蘭科·阿斯維里，當時我正和一位朋友開車經過那條通往他工作室的泥道。我們停下車，走過一段路來到一個靜僻的庭院，附近冷清的只有幾家鄰里，所見之景儼如舊明信片中所描繪的義大利村落。他的工作室令人驚嘆，就好像費里尼電影里的場景，冬日的陽光照進屋內，映照在那層層顏料堆積，色彩斑駁的牆上。我可以感覺到他在這裡日積月累的對藝術的探索。他的工作室充斥著有秩序的凌亂，是他肆意創造的空間，與之形成鮮明對比的其他房間卻顯得整齊雅緻，簡單的傢俬，詩集書本排列在靠牆的書架上。阿斯維里戴著一頂巴拉克拉瓦頭套，只露出眼睛，以抵禦不斷從破掉的玻璃窗吹進來的徹骨寒風。他堅信寒冷並不是問題，即使在艱苦的條件下也要堅持創作。經常出現在阿斯維里作品中的小狗們，像抱枕般散落在不同的角落，享受著從窗戶灑落進來的點點陽光，安心地望著阿斯維里，似乎曾經被前主人丟棄在路邊的過去已成過去。阿斯維里對小狗，流浪動物的愛心，讓我們感受到他信仰善良，樂意幫助並對此毫無非議。初看阿斯維里的作品，他所選擇的題材使人感受到明朗和幽默。一件出色的作品應該最大限度地承載創作者的感情和態度。藝術家的內在情感和精神特質往往通過畫面的質感而表露無遺。為達到這種率性自在的表達，你需要全情地投入，使藝術成為你生命的一部分，阿斯維里無疑已做到這一點。如果你問我要如何形容阿斯維里，我會說他是一個會特意慢下來讓狗追上他的車的人。李杜樸二零一八年冬寫於香港

ARTWORKS

作品

Abracadabra, 2018 Mixed media on canvas, cm 60x80 15

Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 100x100 17

Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 100x100 18

Favole in viaggio (Il cane Arlecchino), 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 60x90

Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 60x90 23

Favole in viaggio, 2018 Mixed media on canvas, cm 80x40 24

Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 70x100

Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 50x60 28

Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 50x60 29

Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 50x60 30

Favole in viaggio (Il Gatto), 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 100x100 33

Favole in viaggio (La Capra), 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 100x100 34

Favole in viaggio (Il Gallo), 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 100x70 36

Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 100x100 38

Favole in viaggio (Il Bambino Biricchino), 2019 Mixed media on canvas, cm 70x100

ARTWORKS LIST

p. 15 Abracadabra, 2018 Mixed media on canvas cm 60x80

p. 25 Favole in viaggio, 2018 Mixed media on canvas cm 80x40

pp. 16-17 Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 100x100

pp. 26-27 Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 70x100

pp. 18-19 Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 100x100

p. 28 Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 50x60

pp. 20-21 Favole in viaggio (Il cane Arlecchino), 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 60x90

p. 29 Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 50x60

pp. 22-23 Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 60x90

pp. 30-31 Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 50x60

pp. 32-33 Favole in viaggio (Il Gatto), 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 100x100

pp. 34-35 Favole in viaggio (La Capra), 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 100x100

p. 37 Favole in viaggio (Il Gallo), 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 100x70

pp. 38-39 Favole in viaggio, 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 100x100

pp. 40-41 Favole in viaggio (Il Bambino Biricchino), 2019 Mixed media on canvas cm 70x100 43

Gianfranco Asveri

BIOGRAPHY Gianfranco Asveri was born in Fiorenzuola d’Arda, Italy in 1948. He lives and works surrounded by the hills of Piacenza with the company of his beloved dogs. Having been through a difficult childhood he started painting in 1969, and thereafter art became his life’s main purpose. In his initial period, Asveri painted in a more traditional figurative way, since the 1980s, his paintings became instinctive and personal as he explored the newly adopted genre where colors and textures became more prominent and resonant, similar to the Art Brut movement. His instinctive approach to painting produces work that is direct, powerful and expressive. He continually finds inspiration in his daily life, as he describes: “I paint what I see when I open the window of my house”. His paintings can be found in many public and private collections throughout the world.

藝術家簡介詹弗蘭科阿斯維里 (Gianfranco Asveri) 1948 年出生於義大利費倫佐拉亞達 (Fiorenzuola d’Arda)。阿斯維里長年生活並創作於義大利北部皮亞琴察 (Piacenza) 的山地上，這裡有他的工作室和如影相隨的小狗們。經歷過艱難的童年，阿斯維里開始在 1969 年投身藝術創作，至此以後藝術成為他的終身志向。阿斯維里早期的繪畫創作也曾有過一段具象描繪的時期，自一九八零年代起，逐漸發展成極具個人風格並傾向直覺性的創作，注重渾厚豐富的色彩和質感，探求一種接近原生藝術最樸素、最接近人類天性的簡單而直接的表達。而他創作的靈感往往來源於日常生活，如他所說，‘我打開窗看到甚麼就畫甚麼。’ 他的作品已在眾多私人和公共展覽中展出，並被納入眾多收藏中。

Gianfranco Asveri in his studio

PRINTED IN MARCH 2019