Franco Dugo - Red on the Hill

Landscape has always been a central theme in artistic research, both as a setting, as a backdrop, and as a subject itself. The naturalistic depiction of landscape has been a major aspiration for artists of every era. Each historical period has offered its own interpretation of landscape, contributing to the evolution of its depiction: first with an exploration of space, through Brunelleschi's perspective in the early Renaissance; then with atmospheric rendering in the sixteenth century; and finally with the depiction of every single vibration of light on objects in Impressionism. Landscape is one of the most recurring subjects in Franco Dugo's artistic production. His interpretation of landscape is highly original and based on in-depth formal research.

Franco Dugo's landscape painting is distinctive from the very composition. He typically frames his views with a very low horizon, focusing his attention on a broad expanse of sky. His landscapes thus unfold as expansive chromatic surfaces, where the absent objects give way to the dynamic effects of light and atmosphere, the true protagonists of the work. Franco Dugo's approach to landscape painting certainly draws on William Turner's aesthetic of the sublime, but compared to the English master, he distinguishes himself with a more accentuated formal rendering that gives his paintings a more abstract and metaphysical character. This particular work is exceptional in the way the artist captures the changes in light and atmosphere with perfect tonal coherence and great expressive power.

Franco Dugo was born in Grgar (Slovenia) in 1941, but has always lived and worked in Gorizia. His first exhibition was held in Gorizia in 1972. Dugo's work unfolds in cycles, in which he develops a main theme that emerges from the complexity of smaller motifs, and he explores various techniques: oil, pastel, drawing, watercolor, and copperplate engraving. He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions of his etchings and paintings in private galleries and public spaces both in Italy and abroad. His works are found in private collections in Italy and abroad and in many modern and contemporary art galleries, including: the Luigi Spazzapan Regional Gallery in Gradisca d'Isonzo and the Provincial Museums of Gorizia, the Modern Art Gallery in Udine, the Civic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Suzzara (Mantua), the Cultural Initiatives Centre in Pordenone, the Amici di Veno Pilon collection of the Pilonova Galerija in Aidussina (Slovenia), the Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych in Lódź and the National Museum in Warsaw (Poland), the Japan Print Association in Tokyo, the Civic Museums Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

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