FRANCO VOLPI OR THE NEW LOOK

Franco sets the gaze. If we want to steal a title, let's take Theodor Adorno's (mythical) one, The Happy Look. Happy? Yes, total, because Franco starts from the axiom seeing-looking-observing which, for him, takes the form of a momentary, instantaneous act, to be more precise. And why? Let's ask ourselves straight away, it's right and natural, again: it's vital. Franco compulses, at times, his experience and professional ability as a photographer; the famous Fleeting Moment, he grasps it, obviously, with the click of the lens, a redundant but inimitable gesture, which connects the attentive eye to the ready hand, both capable of identifying that process at the same time emotional and rational, of the reproduction of the seen in the image of the observed-observer, that is, of the analysis that cannot stop at pure appearance, so fashionable in the present times. The transition from click to brush is therefore more than natural for him.

There is, however, a substantial difference between the immediacy of the photo, even if it is purely posed, and the pictorial application which, mind you, is NOT the slavish and mannered tracing of photography. Franco, when he has the brush in his hand and has his oil paints to spread on canvas, or any other support deemed appropriate, brings his gaze beyond the pose and the immediacy of photography: Franco fixes, establishes and, in this way, enlivens the subject he wants to expose. It goes without saying that his analytical and synthetic gaze, at the same time, does not shy away from experimentation, without, however, falling into sterile mannerist experimentalism. The lesson he absorbed as a professional photographer is expressed in his painting, covering practically all the genres of this art, which is widespread today, but a little too often trivialised or, worse still, distorted. So here he is, literally, doing portraiture, in which there are two stylistic tendencies: the first is the classic posing, in which the subject is detailed, prepared to be the immediately recognisable and, at the same time, timeless. The lesson of the great photographers, starting with Nadar and ending with Cartier-Bresson, combined with classical Italian portraiture - which essentially goes back to the Renaissance - ensure that the view of the subject is uniform and comprehensible, clear-cut. The second trend of his portraiture is the stopping of subjects of feeling, such as, for example, maternity, the visual expressions of childhood, where innocence, love, transport prevail, decisively, over the pose.

From this, we have, at least, two other expressions that Franco knows and wants to capture: Still Life and Movement. In the first case, Franco goes, decisively, in the field of historical Mannerism, fortified by the post-romantic experience of lyrical macchioli; his Still Life is set in an atmosphere of pure tranquillity ... but not of silence. And here we must focus our attention on the technique of raw colourism that Franco uses. Used raw, and skilfully combined, the colours that determine all Franco's work create and justify the form, without conceding anything to any baroqueism: the subject is the one, identified, underlined precisely and, yes, reconstructed by this almost metallic colourism that, however, does not "freeze" it. And in all its variegated expressions, Franco's gaze, the Alpha and Omega of his work (pardon the evangelical quotation) is happy, convinced of transmitting a sure artistic message, which becomes, of course, a technical demonstration but, above all, a firm moral conscience.

Carpi, 1 November 2021