From Allegory to Utopia
BRUNO RITTER
GIUSEPPE AIELLO
17 Sept - 05 Dec, 2022
BRUNO RITTER
Press Release
Bruno Ritter was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, on December 20, 1951. After graduating the Zürich School of Art, he was teaching figure and engraving for a while before devoting himself entirely to painting. Together with this decision, the detachment from the Swiss urban environment and the need of self-isolation for an intense formal research matured in him. In his latest works this fact is perfectly delineated.
Ritter’s starting point is Munch’s Scream. That Scream of 1893 crossed the entire culture of German Expressionism, lacerated the flesh of Schiele’s figures, gave violence to Kokoschka’s color and today it extends its echo in Ritter’s painting.
Lacerated bodies; mouths screaming, desperately mute; men bent over in the degrading position of the quadruple; black beasts that walk like huge disturbing shadows; mountains as a link between heaven and earth, a point of escape from social reality and solidly anchored to natural reality; yearning for the sensual penetration of nature, solipsism in relationship between human, petrified coldness of death, atheist pietas – these are some recurring themes in the paintings of Bruno Ritter.
Ritter currently lives in Borgonovo village, in a house perched along the flounces of Bregaglia.
If the formal ways tried until now by Ritter (from classical realism to informal, through incorporating of all the moods of central European Expressionism) seem to proceed by successes and fractures, denials and repentances, the stylistic code remains the same: the screetch and sometimes the cry of colors ( both combined in the brushstroke, and in their relationship with the rough surface like wrapping paper), the subtle caricatural vein à la Grosz, the irony, the restlessness and the nightmares of men stuck between the subhuman condition and the superhuman aspiration, the natural elegance and the remarkable sense of formal composition, charmed by the cry of color that reveals in its turn unsuspected harmonies, while the negative tension of a thought can never be overturned in catastrophe of the artistic mark.
With Ritter, the Valtellinese landscape loses the lyrical sense given by the painters trained in the circle of “Corrente” and which from the initial cubism of Picasso had later turned towards the Fauves, Matisse and French Expressionism. There is no longer a shadow of lyricism in this disenchanted Chiavenna landscapes by Ritter.
Ritter’s expressionism, if it has its own immediate cultural precedent in the Nordic Expressionism of the 20th century, however, has its remote and conscious ancestry in Rubens and Rembrandt.
Ritter in his personal informal way reintroduces a strong sense of chiaroscuro and the shadow, this being the specific reference to Rembrandt.
GIUSEPPE AIELLO
Press Release
Giuseppe Aiello was born in 1990 in Eastern Switzerland and moved to Basel in July 2016, where he has been living and working as an independent artist ever since.
Early on, Giuseppe recognized his passion for creating art and immersed himself in a creative philosophy of life at a young age. Through contact with his cousins from Italy, who have been active artists for a long time, he began to be more active at the age of twelve and completely immersed himself in the world of creation. They and their group of artists particularly inspired him during his development phase. A few years later Giuseppe Aiello was already creating his own style. Self-taught, he continuously and tirelessly developed his art. His life has always revolved around colors, art and culture. He has already been able to show his works in many solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland and Italy.
"There is nothing stronger than the power of passion."
G. Aiello
​
His art is figurative, abstract, expressive and surrealistic. He shows character and behavior studies in an artistic documentation of his everyday life and life situations. Giuseppe’s paintings are an invitation to wander into an alternate reality. His intention is to create eye-catchers, to bring out the artistic enthusiasm that is in the paintings and to create dynamic works that serve as fantasy stimulators. Particularly stand out in his art scattered, puzzle-like and contrasting elements that take on a variety of shapes when viewed for a long time, encouraging an imaginative puzzle game. Making lost things findable. Since Giuseppe does not indulge in just one technique, but as an artist is always exploring new experimental paths, his greatest motivation is to evolve. He loves the feeling of being completely free to dive into projects, not caring if he deviates from his style. This feeling gives him the ability to change, move and evolve. Because of his casual nature, he does what comes up and is freed from „having to“.
In addition to conventional painting, this casual sense of being allows Giuseppe to work with a variety of techniques and create art using a wide range of mediums. Imaginatively, he creates new works of art again and again.
"If you only follow one line, you will never get to the point."
G. Aiello
​
Taking time to observe his work, will upraise the viewer into a sphere of euphoria. The perception becomes imaginative and profound making his art recognizable from afar.
Freedom in creative expression is his greatest passion.