Fleeting Mountainscape, acrylic on canvas, 240 x 200 cm
Tristan Hoare is delighted to present ‘Equinox’, an exhibition that introduces the new paintings and sculptures by Italian artist Alessandro Twombly.
Equinox (23rd September) is the time of year when day and night are of equal length. In the context of the exhibition the title refers to a well needed moment of synergy and balance with our surroundings.
Alessandro has an intimate connection to his local surroundings, the countryside near Rome where he lives. He knows the flora, fauna, the animals and birds and understands the longer geological perspective which shaped the landscape. Describing this relationship he says ‘I work with nature like another artist might focus on the nude’ and explains that he uses nature as a point of departure to move beyond direct representation. His intention is to access a different kind of experience, approaching a subject familiar to us all from another point of view.
The first thing we notice in these new works is the intensity of the colour. Alessandro is a natural and skilled colourist, combining vibrant colours and layering them with precision. In places, this direct application doesn’t allow the colours to mix and they sit next to each other in contrast, independent yet blended by the composition. This dynamism is reinforced by raw brush strokes applied with energetic movements and paint drips from the surface of the canvas.
Like nature these artworks need to be experienced, but in them one senses an artist in tune with his process, combining different elements to create a vision of genuine power, beauty and vitality.
This intrinsic relationship with nature is also visible in his sculpture. The traces of his fingers on the raw material reveal his attempt to represent substraction as a form of abstraction, where the external image of nature is not his main model. The shapes of his works present the ‘inside’ of nature that pushes something towards the light, which illuminates it and in doing so helps it appear.
