17 PRELUDES

Tenacious Inventiveness

by Gianluca Tedaldi

“The Tradition of the New” is the title of a famous essay by Harold Rosenberg published over sixty years ago, which has now become an effective expression to define the criterion that, almost unconsciously, guides the choice of certain artistic works in the viewer's consideration.

A few words to introduce an undoubtedly multifaceted personality, viewed through the lens of his printmaking production.

Riccardo Bertolotti approached chalcography after exploring, always with passionate participation, various facets of contemporary culture that left within him—along with deep traces—the imperative not to compromise on the quality of “workmanship.”

It may seem unusual for this term to be applied to someone who has long practiced academic teaching in the field of semiotics; and even more so when considering that Riccardo Bertolotti has long cultivated a passionate interest in poetry reading.

In reality, through the various works he has produced, we seem to be able to clearly discern a deep respect—one might say affection—for the “craft” aspect of any discipline. It is almost as if he wishes to involve the hands themselves (the obvious protagonists of figurative works) even in the constructive labor of concepts, prose, or verse. The hand, almost a second mind among the body's extremities, collaborates, inspires, guides. It becomes an action in itself which, precisely because it is freed from the binding schematicism of what we call “mere reason,” accompanies the protagonist on this creative adventure and reveals to the author himself the many facets of his identity.

A brief overview of his prints can better clarify these premises.

The works faithfully captured from life are rich in a narrative that eschews anecdotes in favor of purely graphic episodes: from the pressure of chiaroscuro on the model’s form, to the background that welcomes and transfigures everything, thanks also to the vibrant line.

In the landscapes, by contrast, the drawing is airily restrained, seemingly seeking a balance within the unconscious and wise disorder of Nature.

It is here—right from these early examples—that the opening toward variety, understood as a virtue, is exemplified and translated into contemporary terms.

Should one desire more definitive proof, it would suffice to look at his still lifes, where the choice of objects alone is a challenge to conformity: bones at times, and in other cases representations bordering on the oneiric, featuring characters from an unsettling theater.

Another disorienting motif is the challenge posed to the ancients (particularly the sacred monster of etching, Rembrandt): the Crucifixion with the gesture of Saint Longinus features brooding darkness and sudden flashes of lightning that declare the Baroque as a tutelary deity.

In the portraits, the tone shifts once more: perhaps Chardin? In that deeply inward-looking melancholy of concentrated expressions, one senses the reserve of those who offer themselves to the artist's gaze while keeping their mystery to themselves.

Riccardo Bertolotti also possesses a humorous side which, as is well known, is rare in pure art, unless one means expressly comic or caricatural art. From his small-scale plates emerge strange epigrams, polite paradoxes, or distortions that seem to stem from an impromptu phrase, much like certain passages by Achille Campanile...

Need I say more?

One final excursion into modes and styles that are nonetheless deeply rooted in our culture: choral scenes, the narration of events or situations in which a theater might take place, featuring characters, movements, and settings that are both plausible and profoundly fantastical.

In conclusion, perhaps the opening allusion to a “tradition of the new” is not entirely fitting regarding Bertolotti's versatility; in his case, it might be better to speak of a recapitulation of the possible in terms of what a graphic exercise can offer—a technique that, since its invention, has had a vocation for communication.

And this last word is perhaps the one that best encapsulates the profound vocation of Riccardo Bertolotti.