Alberto Moioli

Opening of Vernissage Solo exhibition Rome, 17.05.2024

ELLEN ESSEN and my first encounter with her works in Turin and Rome

- What struck me was the enthusiasm, then the writing of a critical text that allowed me to enter into an "intimate" relationship with her works and understand what lay beneath the surface, the writing allowed me to go deeper, and what did I find?

- I found that the power of passion is an authentic emotion in Ellen Essen, I found that the beauty she expresses with her expressive language is a part of her, of her restless soul and for this reason particularly interesting.

The intimate portrait, the inner and spiritual aesthetics characterize her in the contemporary art world.

- Anyone who knows me knows that I don't write or introduce artists if they don't give me a feeling, because I wouldn't know what to say, I wouldn't have a convincing argument. With Ellen, I was immediately hooked, because I found in her work a great fascination with her artistic work, which is not only aesthetic, but also internal, I would say spiritual. (Attention not religious, but spiritual, that's something completely different)

The recognizable style

- Her portraits have unique characteristics, and that is precisely why her style is gaining importance day by day, because it can quickly become a language that identifies her in the art world, a way of painting that is not only known but recognized, an imprint that she can leave on all of us.

- On social media, she calls herself an EXPRESSIONIST, which reminds me of German Expressionism, of the country she comes from, of the Expressionist experience of, for example, the Die Brücke group with Kirchner, Nolde and Ensor. In this case, it is the artist who tends to let his subjective view of reality prevail in his work.

- Mode 1 - use of strong, contrasting colors as in van Gogh, Ensor and Munch

- Mode 2 - essential lines, in many cases even inspired by the authenticity of African tradition

Ellen's expressionist portrait could perhaps be described as a further developed expressionism, i.e. contemporary

THE PORTRAIT PRACTICE OF THE CENTURY is interpreted as an inner analysis of the subject.

Unlike in the past, the faces convey an inner view of the person, often problematic and dramatic.

Melancholy

For Ellen Essen, all this means what I have called melancholy in my text.

DO YOU KNOW THE LEGEND OF MELANCHOLY?

It is a story that comes from the legend that PLINUS THE OLD tells in his NATURALIS HISTORIE (Naturalistic Treatise), in the 35th volume (of 37) he speaks of the birth of art as understood by the ancient Greeks, which came about thanks to a WOMAN IN LOVE.

The daughter of Butade, an ancient potter, who, in order to preserve the image of her lover who is about to leave her, paints a portrait of the boy on the wall by tracing the profile projected by the light of a lantern.

A gesture to make a memory indelible, to soothe her great moment of melancholy.

It's just a legend, but it's full of poetry. Tracing a memory, capturing a moment forever to preserve love for eternity.

This is the poetic melancholy that I find in Ellen's wonderful works and that touches me so much.

The greats of art and melancholy

MICHELANGELO was considered a melancholic genius

Many masterpieces have melancholy as their main theme, just think of the Penitent Magdalene, first painted by Caravaggio in 1594 and then by Canova in 1796

The quiet melancholy of Modigliani's portraits and this stillness between poetry and melancholy in Edward Hopper's wonderful watercolors

Munch's series of five works entitled Melancholy

The relationship between melancholy and creative genius is close and always topical. Melancholy as muteness, a term that happens to be of Germanic origin and refers to THE ENIGMA, the MYSTERY IN THINGS in ordinary objects and in Ellen Essen's portraits.

The portrait is thus seen here as a MEANINGFUL CONDITION OF THE MODERN SPIRIT

The melancholic mood

- is a state of mind

- It is an aesthetic category that oscillates between feeling and emotion in Heidegger's reflections when he speaks of transcendence and pathos

- Giorgio De Chirico spoke a lot about this, perhaps even more than about the metaphysics that characterizes him. Illustration of the work "Melancholy of an Autumn Afternoon 1913

Only one very important thing is still missing

Song Joong-ki, portrayed in his own unique way by Ellen Essen, is a South Korean actor. Thanks to the international success of the TV series and films in which he appears, he is one of the biggest stars of Hallyu.

His son from his second marriage was born here in Rome a year ago.

I love the painting that shows him as a boxer, here at the end of a fight, injured and taking off his bandages, which is a powerful metaphor for life, in which he reminds us that despite the injuries and despite the bandages, we have to keep fighting, by sticking to the rules, as well as to the ring as to the rules of life. A great lesson in thinking to which Ellen invites us, but above all she reminds us that behind each of her works there is an emotion and an important reflection.

This shows us that these works are not the result of a stylistic exercise, but the result of her creative and expressive artistic work and for this very reason worthy of standing with their heads held high in the art world. I present this exhibition with true pleasure and honor, my appreciation and affection for Ellen is genuine.

Finally, I would like to thank ANNALISA PREZIOSI and MARINA GIAMBI who, as fans of the actor, have really done a lot of mediation work

"We continue to make art and tell stories, because that's the only way we can go. We educate ourselves to beauty and God knows how much we need it.

Thank you all

Alberto