Презентация на тему Francisco Masseria and his Girls

was born on April 7th, 1926 in Parana, capital

of Province of Entre Rios, Argentina. Masseria’s parents were Italian.

evidenced a talent for art when he ws quite

young, drawing color pencil portraits of his grade school friends.
He began painting with oil paints when he was about 13 and progressed rapidly
as an artist.

fourteen when exhibiting at the Salon Annuale of Entre

Rios he earned his first gold medal.
His father, Joseph, encouraged his son to pursue his talent as a ‘self taught’ artist. Masseria’s paintings did not gain recognition in Argentina. “I was known locally but not nationally” he said during a visit to the USA.

said. “When I started to paint in Argentina people

would say, ‘Francisco, why don’t you paint abstract art?’ I did not paint it because I did not feel it. Yet around 1970 I started to paint abstract art because it was within me at that time, not because it was the right thing to do at the moment.”

exquisitely classic ~ the luminous, angelic faces, the serene

gaze of the untroubled, the Renaissance like costumes. But the backgrounds are of another time and place, whirling, swirling abstract masses. By combining the classic realism with the abstract Masseria achieved remarkable tension and release, the heartbeat of any art form.

in the backgrounds,” he pointed out. “They are not

just haphazard. They have a meaning, a significance, and they stand on their own. I like to think that my painting leaves a little mystery and leads the viewer to discover new nuances in my work.”

opposed schools of thought: the Romantic realism of Diego

Velasquez, Peter Paul Rubens and Eugene Delacroix, and the swirling abstract expressionism of Chaim Soutine an dWillem de Kooning. Masseria combines these two forces in work that is both monumental and passionate.

a lyrical response to the human form, especially in

developing the typically romantic serenity of the eyes. Like the Spaniard Velasquez, he applies vigorous brush work to his lively portraits, combining an economy of style with a painterly application of fresh translucent color.

that is similar to Rubens, the 17th Century Flemish

master, and the Frenchman Delacroix. While the compositions of these artists alternate between baroque vitality and rhythmic balance, the technique is determinedly Romantic. Their touch is free and bold. Color is their essential medium of expression.

aligns himself with the modern theory that color and

form can exist alone as a means of expression without reference to the imitation of visual reality. The slashing, twisting colors of Masseria’s backgrounds are expressive
even though
they are nonrepresentational.

the contemporary school of abstract-expressionism. The calm realism of

the foregrounds contrasts with the dynamic tensions of the backgrounds. Out of this emerges a painting within a painting. The patterns of colors, densely intermingled and freely splattered, exist without reference to nature.

from Rio to Los Angeles to New York achieving

great acclaim for his work. A series of personal exhibitions from 1950 to 1964 brought him into the major circles of the art world.

collectors and art lovers world wide.

F.J.J.C. Masseria represented by

Arnot Gallery in New York since 1958. Masseria died in Rome, Italy in 2002.