When the issue of writing a critical comment for Franco de Courten came out, at first I had a moment of bewilderment. I thought: how can I possibly keep a neutral and realistic eye on the artistic production of someone who has been my artistic partner for the “Enchantment” series (www.artincantations.com); whom I sheerly and deeply admire; who honors me with his friendship and affection, being my senior in many aspect? I will try nonetheless.
Franco’s paintings are the result of a multi-year observation of nature and interaction between man and the natural world. His brilliant diplomatic career brought him in contact with different cultures, different landscapes, different approaches to the way of considering the mission of man in the world during our journey into life. Yet Franco has kept an innocent and constant eye, in spite of these experiences, and his style of painting is unmistakable.
In his early creations (decades ago) I could already observe some of the patterns which are still present in the creations of today. The first component is the influence of colour (Franco is a Mediterranean ) and the happiness of the artistic result. Franco believes, as I do, in the social and ethical mission of the Art, as it was in the great Italian tradition: Art has to elevate the spirit and the soul, and inspire sentiments of gratitude for the great gifts we receive since we are born: the deep blues, the indigoes, the emerald greens are the jewels of daily life, which we tend to ignore or to overlook, driven by a sense of masochism. Too often the messages we receive from the media or from the surroundings, make us believe that Art is equivalent of suffering, and intelligence is equivalent to negative criticism.
In my opinion this is a serious mistake. Life is made of happiness and sadness, of light and shade; therefore Art, which is the mirror image of life, cannot be only sadness, tragic, drama. On the contrary, Art should teach us to leave the occult message, written in the great book of life: “per aspera ad astra”, as our Latin ancestors used to think. Through tough work and endurance we can climb to the stars, and we should be able to see the sunshine behind the clouds, the freedom behind the bars of our deception and illusions. This brings me to qualify the second component of Franco’s artistic patterns: the geometric component, the abstract partitions in the visual universe evoked in most of his works.
Those geometric patterns, those fragments of reality are exactly like the bars of a imaginary prison: reality is beautiful, happiness is just there behind the bars. The message of these wonderful paintings is this: “break the boundaries”, “break the frames of illusion” with the power of the mind and the energy of our soul, inspired and magnified by the Art.
(c) Mr. Paolo Sabbatini, Director Italian Cultural Institute, 9 agosto 2008.
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