FRANCO MARGARI
Before touching on the mind’s ability to leap beyond the threshold of the perceivable, the word “abstraction” etymologically suggests a process of separation, if not a veritable “extraction” from that part of the whole to which it belongs. In other words, abstraction lies not in negating what opens on the visible horizon, nor in wandering aimlessly in an unlimited space. Instead, it is being able to subtly see through things, drawing their essence and hidden purposes. In Franco Margari’s work, everything evoking a natural environment – horizons, colors, reflections of light – is nothing more than an “extraction” of meaning and expressive values. This extraction from his landscape studies is direct, facilitated by the best pictorial tradition that is straightforward yet converges in a dimension that no longer belongs to either a visual, aesthetic, or contemplative experience. Instead, it proceeds from perception to interiorizing facts of nature.
Consequently, in this case, to speak of abstraction refers principally to a deconstruction of the very idea of a landscape. Margari’s works are no longer a place set in a particular time and space but rather a condensation of memories, thoughts, lyrical suggestions, and inner states. The object of interest is not nature per se. Instead, it is a utopia linked to the concept of nature, where a painted image reveals the invisible or, better, “sees” beyond, making nature coincide with the most profound, most organic idea of existence. This identification is responsible for the “chaotic” colors, the restless harmonies and dissonances – free of any true musical score – on the painting’s surface, which suggests a continual evolution of fragile truths, unexpected apparitions, and radiant twilights about to fade away. Margari invites us to consider the seductiveness of a painting as it becomes an “event” reflected in a mirrored sheet of metal that accommodates and restores the layers of color, permeating them with an intense and iridescent luminous depth – not the simple addition of matter and light, surface and color, reflected reality and inner illusion. Still, this way of observing is developed to consent to “seeing” and “being seen” through painting, combining instant perception and absolute thought in an ever-inquiring language of unlimited poetry.
Daniela Pronestì