Untitled（2017），Oil on canvas，200 × 200 cm，Courtesy of the artist

Gianni Dessì was born in 1955 in Rome. His latest artistic explorations centre on the figure of the artist presented in contemporary society and his role in creating suggestive metaphors of life. 

Dessì formulates powerful and dramatic visual metaphors of the ‘speaking artist’, who reveals — through his own fear — the dangers of the disappearance of values and clear vision about human orientation. He creates dramatic images of self-portraits by re-interpreting and re-introducing old patterns and traditional models of the artist’s self-presentation as a universal subject and image of the suffering man.

The work here is a square painting in a dynamic position that captures the artist’s self-portrait. The painting finds its visual continuation on the wall through its geometric space. In this sense, Dessì’s voice seeks to reflect a resistance against nihilism, emptiness and indifference, which are some of the elements of the time we live in. 

Tu×Tu (Ezra)（2010），Mixed media，251 × 133 × 115 cm，The Parkview Museum Collection

The inspiration for this artwork comes from famous American poet Ezra Pound. Pound was variously described by other writers of the day as “a large bundle of unpredictable electricity” (Joyce), “more responsible for the twentieth century revolution in poetry than any other individual,” (Eliot) and “a solitary volcano” (Yeats). While creating literary works, Pound also wrote a large body of critical essays on society, and broadcast polemics against materialism and industrialism. For his radical anti-government views, the US government charged him with treason in 1945, and he was confined to a psychiatric ward until his indictment was dismissed by a federal court in 1958.

Dessì says, “Yellow is the most irreverent color. It never stops at just the surface. From the perspective of optics, yellow is in a constant state of motion. It does not belong to the position it occupies.” But Dessì is adept at controlling the color yellow. Many of his signature works use color to deftly transform the dichotomy between the inside and outside of the picture, thus blurring the boundaries between two and three dimensions.

Gianni Dessì's creative aim, however, is not to subvert the plane and volume through magician's tricks. That is because he feels there really is no issue of what painting should be, or what sculpture should be. For the artist, what matters is being able to clearly express the meaning he wishes to convey, and that should not be limited by any artistic language or medium. In this artwork, the inherent optical properties of the color yellow highlight Pound’s erratic character, as the poet's unbridled spirit guides the viewer to thoughts about the value and role of art and artist in society.