Maja Arte Contemporanea is delighted to start the new 2022-2023 exhibition season with a show titled "Epistolarium", Margareth Dorigatti's most recent painting cycle consisting of twenty or so works created between 2020 and 2022.
From a letter Margareth Dorigatti wrote to the gallery owner Daina Maja Titonel on 31 May 2022:
"[...] As a girl and later in adulthood I always wrote letters, initially to communicate with my grandmother who taught me how it was done; and then, when I left home at the age of 17 in pursuit of painting, to my mother. Later still I wrote to people who were fond of me. [...] At this point, following two years of pandemic that forced us all to reflect on how we behave, I have catalogued all my works and perused the bundles of letters kept in the black suitcase. From these hundreds of letters I have extracted phrases at random and attempted to 'rewrite' them in my own fashion, in the only language I feel is truly mine: Painting. These are the works that I would like to exhibit with you next time."
The exhibition catalogue contains a precious written contribution by Duccio Trombadori, who addressed the following words to Margareth Dorigatti on 19 August 2022:
"[...] You're an acute, insightful and occasionally unsparing analyst of your – and our – feelings, dear Margareth. And this way of delving deep into expression and existence is what makes your 'Epistolarium' so fascinating: the chromatic grafts, mixed techniques, double surfaces and your astounding technical armory all become part of the picture with the spontaneous emotional strength of a caress, intimating harmony among apparent dissonance. Far from any form of intellectual dalliance, these works speak for the magnetic virtue of achieving poetry in pictorial form.[...] Dear Margareth, this intriguing and highly symbolic visual epistolary is a long letter of impassioned human affinity and boundless faith in the expressive power of painting as an idiom infused with poetry. It's a rare accomplishment in our present times, and that is why I felt the need to write you a letter, in the hope that not all will be lost and that some trace may remain."
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Margareth Dorigatti was born in Bolzano (Italy) in 1954. In 1973 she enrolled in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, where she studied with Emilio Vedova. In 1975, she moved to Berlin to study Painting, Graphics and Photography at the Universität der Künste. In 1977 she founded an Atelier frequented by eminent artists and theatre people living in Berlin.In 1980 she began exhibiting her work in private galleries in Berlin.In 1983, with Joachim Szymzcak, she devised and completed an enormous project for decorating the Berlin subway network: 75 paintings in eight different stations.She won the Internationalen Bauausstellung competition for the decoration of the façade of a historic Kreuzberg house.Following her degree in Visual Communications, in 1983 she moved to Rome, where she has continued her work as a painter.She has exhibited in Italy and abroad in private galleries, public venues and museums (Rome, Paris, Milan, Pescara, Bolzano, Modena, Bologna, Berlin, Nimes, Lyon, Cologne, Bonn, etc.). She has taken part in various international Biennial and Triennial shows, including the Venice Biennale.Her works belong to various public collections, including The Vatican Museums (Rome), "Rottenbuch-Palais" (Bolzano), Collezione "Kreutzer Eccel" (Bolzano), Musei Altoatesini (Bolzano), Palazzo della Provincia (Bolzano), Galleria Stella (Bolzano), Oper Köln (Cologne), "Sparkasse" Savings Bank (Brunico), Palazzo Barberini (Palestrina), Pulsklinik Hospital (Berlino).From 2004 to 2021 she held the Chair of Decoration at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, having previously occupied the same position at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Moreover, she has taught as visiting professor at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, the Akademie der Künste in Munich and at the Libera Università of Bolzano.
