Modern times
Modern times have accustomed us to the doleful art of anguish, tragedy and distress. Why? At the time of Poussin the reception hall revelled in a meeting of Venus with Adonis, works that did not expect to be housed in museums, but simply to be considered as a magnificent literary pastime of happy days, not to be forgotten.
Serafina Colombo’s exhibition here in Magenta only aims at this purpose: creating a beautiful interlude, to remember for life, of a happy season, of memorable encounters.
Ideally it would be the setting of a piece of music, that could be jazz, folk or classical; ideally she would be surrounded by an interest expressed by posters that fix the ephemeral in history.
There are not many artists who are valuable and accept to be humbly destined to enliven a short period. The one mentioned above yes. She is convinced that her works should be presented as facts of life. She remembers how in the distant past, writers such as Carlo Bo (now senator for life) wrote essays entitled "literature as life".
The intention was to make works of art come out of the closed circle of the market and of the great qualified exhibitions, to present artworks as products of work, made with craftsmanship and touched, occasionally, by grace.
We go back at least to the seventeenth century, when at the end of the Eighty-Year War, the Dutch painters from the seven northern provinces which had been freed, became available for a middle class that only asked for a décor picture, although a naval battle was proposed (historical memory) as the ones by de Vliegher, Vad de Velde, Vroom and Porcellis . Painters that should go back to providing works for interior design; this is what this artist intends to do, whose virtues are well-known and which, with my modest authority, given by decades of work, I feel I can guarantee.
Raffaele De Grada - May 1987
On the occasion of the personal exhibition at Casa Giacobbe in Magenta
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