THE RAREFIED EXPRESSIVENESS OF FRANCO BERALDO.
Franco Beraldo's imaginative path has been substantially transformed in this last period and has arrived at non-figurative solutions that represent a synthesis of his personal research. In fact, the artist is known for painting landscapes or still lifes, the result of a rarefied and ideal expressiveness. The move towards an essential representation was an almost physiological consequence, since the substance of his painting has not changed. In fact, we find the same sensitivity, an identical purification of the material, the same refinement of the space-form balance, a tense and diffused luminosity that highlights the relationships between the silhouettes; what is now accentuated is the pure form, the idea.
However, the research starts from reality, so the inspirational motif remains constant, but there is a further passage through interiority. In fact, the works present defined and decisively contoured forms that become almost silhouettes, pieces used to compose images and construct geometric shapes that recall known and already familiar experiences.
The colours themselves, superimposed according to a precise calculation of veiling and density, are enhanced and contrasted through visual interaction, so that the colours acquire luminosity and depth. The shapes depicted, being synthetic, are rather flattened, but seem to acquire depth thanks to the light interacting with the colour. Luminosity plays a fundamental role, because it makes the colours transparent, creates chromatic accents and gives clarity to the formal references. Beraldo uses a vivid palette, with a prevalence of pinks, greens and blues, which is harmonious and full of expressive energy. As a result, even the paintings, which were sometimes metaphysical in their figurative representation, now interpret a renewed vitality. In addition, there are graphic interventions that define the forms and, in some cases, become almost calligraphic, because they interpret, in a freer way, sensations or thoughts.
It is a representation that is constantly poised between interiority and objectivity, between synthesis and figuration, as if the artist wanted to look more deeply inside himself, but was afraid to go all the way to introspection. All this is synonymous with an intense desire to research, to deepen an expressive language that had already taken on a precise connotation, but which now represents a starting point towards a renewed desire for experimentation.
Antonella Alban