Giuseppe Minaya - Landscape with Henhouse

I was born in Pisticci in the province of Matera in 1936. After completing my classical studies, I moved to Rome in the late 1950s, where I attended a course in advertising graphics and the Academy of Fine Arts. At the same time, I began to devote myself to painting and participated in group exhibitions with painters who were already well-known and appreciated at the time, such as Carlo Levi, Corrado Cagli, Mino Maccari, Giovanni Omiccioli, Orfeo Tamburi, and others. In the meantime I had set up my studio in Piazzale Flaminio and here I had begun to paint in a conscious way, starting a series of personal exhibitions and frequenting the artistic environment of Piazza del Popolo where all the artists of the time converged, giving life to the happy artistic season of the sixties which is still remembered and appreciated, Being just a few steps from Via Margutta, it was natural for me to join the group of artists who frequented and exhibited there, sharing, with my enthusiasm and my works, that celebration of color and emotion, the fruit of a Bohemian sentiment that, from the famous street, extended throughout the capital and in which notable artists participated who, at the same time, held their solo exhibitions in the numerous galleries that then flourished throughout the city. My interest in painting, however, did not begin in Rome but during my adolescence, when, armed with paints and canvases, I began to depict subjects and motifs from my homeland, such as the gullies and the beloved trunks of olive trees that for many years were the leitmotif of my landscape painting. During the same period, I was interested in exploring the graphic aspect of reality, mastering all the techniques that, in complementing my experience in advertising graphics, were closest and most useful for a purer and more focused artistic expression: I was therefore interested in xylography and linocut, drypoint, etching and tinted watercolour, producing with these graphic techniques works that clearly represented and demonstrated my mastery of the expressive medium. After this phase, which focused on the graphic aspect of the works—the form—my interest shifted toward the soul of the creations, that is, toward color, a less rational and more emotional aspect for any image that expresses the soul of the work itself in a more emotional way. From that moment on, my interest in colour became prevalent in my works and I began to treat it with all materials, according to the feeling of the subject and the interest of the moment: the tempera, the coloured inks and the watercolours used during the advertising graphics period, have thus given way to the use of oil which, contrary to what it may seem, is the most docile, complete and easy to use material in the execution of a painting but, at the same time, more brilliant and definitive than tempera and acrylics which only have the advantage of drying quickly and, therefore, allowing for greater speed in painting. My interest in color led me to approach different schools and painters who made this medium their strong point. Fascinated by their works and captivated by the spell that emanates from every image, I began to approach the Impressionists first, and Van Gogh and Gauguin in particular, before steadily focusing on the figurative art of the Expressionists, the painters of the "Cobra" group, and abstract art in general. Currently, after having almost completely abandoned figurative painting, it allows me to express myself more freely, as if in a second youth, with a sense of newfound enthusiasm. With such a substantial technical background, I have been able to tackle the most diverse figurative mediums: from the large sacred paintings painted for the churches of Santa Maria delle Mole and Amatrice, executed in an almost Renaissance figurative style, to the numerous watercolors, acrylics, and oils created, in the privacy of my studio, for my exhibitions or for the pure pleasure of painting for myself, but without ever copying or repeating myself and without in any way subjecting myself to the demands of those who saw my paintings as a pure motive for profit. A distinctive feature of my paintings is the free use of color in an expressionist manner: each is unique and unrepeatable, and even when I treat the same subject several times, I do so to endow it with different feelings and flavors in an unfulfilled desire to fully express the initial feeling that drove me to tackle it. Each painting, however, is a work in itself, never serial, commercial, or simply decorative: my work is the expression of an emotion or a feeling that can only enter the home of those who are pervaded by the same sensation and want to make it their own as a companion in their daily life. Now, on the threshold of eighty, considering the exhibition system and the relationship with private galleries something obsolete and antiquated, I have decided, in order to make my works known to a wider audience, to rely on the power of the web to showcase them and offer them to all those who wish to share with me the fruit of my passion for art. In conclusion, I'll end this brief presentation here. Although I could have presented a long list of my experiences, I'll leave these matters to professional critics and art dealers. I'll simply present my works to the public, who can freely and independently enjoy and evaluate them without biased suggestions. Art is subjective and should be treated as such, with the utmost seriousness and sincerity.

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