Pipes by Fabrizio Breschi
Art review
Noted Italian painter Fabrizio Breschi, born in Livorno in 1950, had a small exhibition of his work at Smithfield Church on September 13, 2015. As a young man he was a singer and actor, but his love of painting compelled him to paint full-time. He taught painting for many years at The Academy of Florence, and then transferred to the prestigious Academy of Brera in Milan. In 2003 to 2007, he taught at The Academy of Carrara in Tuscany. He now resides in his home town of Livorno where he can paint by the sea.
Influences on his work have been diverse: the abstraction, social commentary, and energy of the Futurists, as well as Picasso, Rothko, and Frank Stella. His early work features various series of abstract paintings. Many of these paintings feature pipes. In the painting illustrated here the pipes at first glance appear to somewhat connect, but under closer inspection, none of the pipes connect—they offer an allegory of a society that functions through non-connection. Many of his abstractions freight ironic social commentary, but he has genuine affection for tranquil beauty—motifs of a sliver moon wink with subtle irony in many of his more representational works.
His middle period was more preoccupied with portraying robots and computers in amusing situations: as a lonely child in a crib; a mother robot cradling her laptop progeny; robots eating delicious ball bearings. One of my favorites portrays a saintly robot as the last “man” on a yellow clay-cracked Earth with a wan moon hovering over the ecological apocalypse. Behind his paintings of machines hovers a human soul or witty social commentary. An ethereal glow emanates from the colors employed in his work.
Breschi’s current series of paintings direct their focus toward stones, exploring the archaic nature of the soul beyond “representational” painting.
