Paolo BARUFFALDI

PAOLO BARUFFALDI

graduated in philosophy in 1975 and began his first graphic experiments with Licata, Sanchini and Goetz.
Incision took pride of place from the very beginning of his artistic output, in particular etching and acquatint but he also made use of other techniques such as carborundum, xylography and dry-point.
This choice was no mere chance it was rather imposed by a conscious desire and inclination towards all that was ambivalent and therefore symbolic.
Towards the end of the seventies an anthropomorphic figure made its appearance in his work, it was slender, rendered in neat precise lines.
Silent at first, it appeared and disappeared, this discreet voiceless quiet soul returned some time later.
Then it began to appear more frequently, became omnipresent and, just like Narcissus, he became enamoured with himself and his own reflection.
This “stroke-symbol-signature” plays the principal role in some of the significant works that the artist collected into the portfolios that mark the real evolutionary stages of Baruffaldi’s artistic vision: Reperti, 1978; La Luna, 1980; Attica, 1987; Codice 48, 1995.
Now research into this symbolic, emblematic cipher has yielded yet another series of works entitled “in illo tempore”.
The novelty here is perceived not only from the technical point of view, but also, and above all, from an emotional stance thanks to an expressionistic use of colour.
Transparency is left aside, all effects of tonality, being too precarious and transitory, are forgotten in favour of the triumph of warm, aggressive and dissonant colours. A compact, consistent pictorial texture prevails saturated in light.