Eden

federico cortese

Oil on thick paper, 24 x 48 cm, 2022 (original sold).

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federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, 2022

Eden

federico cortese

From a series of imaginary animals. Oil on wood panel, 50 x 55 cm, 2022.

Rorschach number 6

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Rorschach”, oil on thick paper, 65 x 50 cm, 2020.

Virtual model

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Virtual model”, oil and pencil on paper, 40 x 40 cm, 2020 (original sold).

Laguna

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm, 2020. Imaginary landscape.

Children

federico cortese

Childhood memories. Oil and pencil on paper, 30 x 21 cm, 2020. Original sold.

Constellation number 7

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Embroideries”; oil on paper; 40 x 40 cm, 2020. Original sold.

Scott and Amundsen at the South Pole

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Deformations”, oil on thick paper, 56 x 40 cm, 2020.

Nobile's flight to the North Pole

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Deformations”, oil on thick paper, 56 x 40 cm, 2020. Original sold.

Pennants

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Flag”; oil on thick paper, 30 x 50 cm, 2020. Original sold. Every time that I come back home from a journey or a holiday, I always find some flags among the photographs that I’ve taken. I am particularly fascinated by those flags moved by the wind, where the geometries of the coloured tissues overlap on the spirals of folds and on the shadows generated by the movement. It’s even better if the flag is old, maybe a bit ripped, marked by the time that they spent to wave, maybe a little faded or dirty from the dusty air they crossed.

Inside the house

federico cortese

Oil on thick paper, 44 x 33 cm, 2020. ORIGINAL SOLD. A simple and perhaps banal scene, but at the same time ambiguous and disturbing: two separate rooms, one person in each room. The viewer spies from the outside what is taking place inside. Actually he cannot know exactly what is happening. Is the boy hiding from the girl or is he catching her doing something forbidden? Or maybe nothing is happening at all, and no one of them knows anything about the other? Only the eye of the beholder generates the "drama" and can find malice in what he sees. The drama of the scene is amplified by the fact that the floor is imperceptibly inclined, from the bottom of the rooms towards the observer, as if the characters were forced to slide outwards, and by the nocturnal setting that allows the creation of shadows projected towards us.

Cipher number 50

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Code”, oil and graphite on paper, 40 x 40 cm, 2020. A map is an imprint, a sign of man in the landscape. An alien intelligence, observing our cities from the great distances of space, could interpret them as the characters of an alphabet, sort of messages, a code of signs, each one different from the other, each with its own meaning and its own syntax. This hypothetical alien presence may not even realize that these cities have a purpose and a function, which are the product of the way we have adapted to live on this planet, but it could engage in an attempt to interpret this unknown language, identifying the alphabet and associating to each character a precise meaning. Will we still be able to understand and share these new meanings, or will they have lost any sense for us?

My grandfather was a light maker

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm. Every family has its own legends. Those of my family are centered on the figure of my grandfather. My grandfather made his living by inventing a thousand jobs: he was a blacksmith, but also an electrician, carpenter, handyman ... In his small village of origin, before the war, public lighting had not yet arrived. He was asked to build a street lighting system, he did it. As a boy, I often fantasized about helping him in this enterprise, which would have been impossible, because he died before I was born. But I liked to imagine myself carrying these big heavy lamps between the houses and the courtyards, where, in reality, some of those that he built are still working!

Golden

federico cortese

From the series “Please do not kill butterflies”, pins and oil on paper mounted on a wood panel, 35 x 28 cm, 2019. Original sold. Please, all these dead animals ... Of course, not every one of us can or want to become vegetarian. Sure, in some cases, maybe, the medical experimentation needs them to get results. But we really have to kill them for our frivolous activities? ... Is it necessary to have so many pink pigs die in front of a camera? Do we really need to dissect sharks in formaldehyde, to starve stray dogs tied to a chain in the corner of a gallery, or to make innocent ants go crazy in twisted tubes of plexiglas? To make these paintings, no butterfly was killed.

Memory of Turin

federico cortese

From a series of urban landscapes. Original sold.

Small view of San Francisco

federico cortese

From a series of little urban views. Oil on cardboard, 23 x 18 cm, 2019.

The landfill of Los Angeles

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “The earth seen from space”, oil on canvas. 50 x 40 cm, 2019. This series of paintings is inspired by satellite photographs that today, with tools like Google Earth, allow anyone the virtual exploration of the planet. Starting from those real images, I rework those aerial views, inventing new codes of representation and new decorative elements. The map is distorted, deformed, altered as if it were a past memory, but something of that place is still recognizable.

Memory of the coral reef

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm, 2018. Original sold.

Berlin Alexanderplatz

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Windows”, oil and pencil on wood panel, 35 x 25 cm, 2017. The facade of a building is a sort of skin for it. A dress, a kind of embroidery where the alternation of elements (full and empty, windows, materials, structural and decorative elements) gives a different rhythm every time. In my travels I always wonder if it is possible to discover this rhythm and its variations, and if it is specific for that place, or whether modernity has made us all irreparably the same. But probably behind this interest there is also a sort of voyeurism. Who lives in these rooms? Which eyes glance from there? What kind of stories and tragedies hide in those houses?

David and Goliath

federico cortese

Studio from Caravaggio's "David and Goliath". Oil and pencil on paper, 42 x 30 cm, 2017.

Psychedelic fish

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 40 x 80 cm, 2016. Original painting sold.

Ink drop number 15

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “China’s drops”, oil and pencil on paper, 24 x 24 cm, 2016. Original sold. If you try to drip a drop of ink on a wet surface you can observe that it doesn’t spread evenly, diluting in water, but expands in a sudden and irregular way, causing streaks and branches that are oriented on the surface on the basis of the obstacles or impurities encountered, perhaps invisible. This generates a rich arabesque, a pure decoration that can vary from time to time, and that expands until it fills the entire surface.

Penguins family

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 40 x 70 cm, 2016. Original painting sold.

Diagram

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Diagram”, pencil and oil on paper, 44 x 50 cm, 2016.

Circular butterfly

federico cortese

from the series “Please do not kill butterflies”, pins and oil on paper mounted on a wood panel. 35 x 30 cm, 2018. Please, all these dead animals ... Of course, not every one of us can or want to become vegetarian. Sure, in some cases, maybe, the medical experimentation needs them to get results. But we really have to kill them for our frivolous activities? ... Is it necessary to have so many pink pigs die in front of a camera? Do we really need to dissect sharks in formaldehyde, to starve stray dogs tied to a chain in the corner of a gallery, or to make innocent ants go crazy in twisted tubes of plexiglas? To make these drawings, no butterfly was killed.

Circular butterfly

federico cortese

From the series “Please do not kill butterflies”, pins and oil on paper mounted on a wood pane, 35 x 30 cm, original sold. Please, all these dead animals ... Of course, not every one of us can or want to become vegetarian. Sure, in some cases, maybe, the medical experimentation needs them to get results. But we really have to kill them for our frivolous activities? ... Is it necessary to have so many pink pigs die in front of a camera? Do we really need to dissect sharks in formaldehyde, to starve stray dogs tied to a chain in the corner of a gallery, or to make innocent ants go crazy in twisted tubes of plexiglas? To make these drawings, no butterfly was killed.

Phantom butterfly

federico cortese

from the series “Please do not kill butterflies”, pins and oil on paper mounted on a wood panel. 35 x 20 cm, 2017. ORIGINAL SOLD. Please, all these dead animals ... Of course, not every one of us can or want to become vegetarian. Sure, in some cases, maybe, the medical experimentation needs them to get results. But we really have to kill them for our frivolous activities? ... Is it necessary to have so many pink pigs die in front of a camera? Do we really need to dissect sharks in formaldehyde, to starve stray dogs tied to a chain in the corner of a gallery, or to make innocent ants go crazy in twisted tubes of plexiglas? To make these drawings, no butterfly was killed.

Red flowers

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Botany’s notebook”, oil on paper. 30 x 44 cm, 2016. These are the plants that I grow on my balcony. I have a small balcony with a few pots of flowers, and these are the things I see more when I'm sitting at my desk, and every time I look up from the drawing I'm doing, out of the window, this is what I see. I get distracted, but the distraction brings me right back to the need to draw, so I take another piece of paper and try to sketch the plants, their colors, the shadows and the light reflections dancing on their leaves. When I go back to the work I was previously doing, a little bit of these sketches is transferred into it, and this tells me that my drawings (my thoughts), though apparently distant and very different from each other, talk, communicate and transmit the information all together.

Geraniums

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Botany’s notebook”, oil and pencil on paper. 30 x 44 cm, 2015. ORIGINAL SOLD.

Fish

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Point me at the sky!”, oil and pencil on paper, 35.5 x 24 cm, 2012.

Water lilies

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Point me at the sky!”, oil and pencil on paper, 35.5 x 24 cm, 2012.

Abstract landscape

federico cortese

Oil and pencil on paper, 33 x 24 cm, 2009. Original sold.

River

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “The earth seen from space”, oil on canvas. 50 x 50 cm, 2008. The first time I used Google Earth was fantastic. I could not believe that someone had photographed the entire planet, and that the exploration of this world was accessible to all. Browsing by chance I discovered amazing scenarios, looking at the city streets from far away I could accomplish wonderful virtual travels. I discover unexpected color blends at the mouths of the rivers or along the coast of the sea, shades that make uncertain the border between land and water. The cultivated fields create a dense mosaic of colors. The view from a great distance reduces the details and makes possible a new form of representation of the landscape. Basically, the only thing that is changed is the point of view.

Fracture

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “The earth seen from space”, oil on canvas. 50 x 50 cm, 2007. This series of paintings is inspired by satellite photographs that today, with tools like Google Earth, allow anyone the virtual exploration of the planet. Starting from those real images, I rework those aerial views, inventing new codes of representation and new decorative elements. The map is distorted, deformed, altered as if it were a past memory, but something of that place is still recognizable.

Red smoke

federico cortese

Pencil and pigment on paper, 44 x 50 cm, 2007. A solid pattern made with a pencil, lightly fading to the edges, allows me to simulate plumes of smoke. A small square in the lower part symbolizes the brazier from which the smoke is released. What counts for me, is the possibility to vary these few trivial rules in the representation. The spirals of smoke create an arabesque that differs every time. The uniform pattern flattens the drawing of the spirals but their shape and their density let imagine the movement of the air, or the intensity of the combustion. Even the colors may be different every time, both for the arabesque that for the small rectangle at the bottom.

Six pigeons

federico cortese

Oil on paper. Original sold. When I was a young boy I danced like a madman following the tune of an old vinyl of my parents, "Point Me at the Sky" by Pink Floyd. I didn‘t understand the lyrics, I didn’t know that the song was about a pilot that crashes for a fault on his plane. I figured it was an exhortation to take the flight. In the bright contrast of the hot summer afternoons, I saw the black silhouettes of birds flying against the backdrop of a clear sky. I saw the leaves of the plants filtering the sunlight, and revealing the consistency of their veins and in some cases the shadow of a small frog, motionless, resting on them. To the tune of that song, watching some fish caught in a basin of zinc, I imagined them free and strong in their river, darting happily in the glow of the August sun.

Amarillis

federico cortese

These are the plants that I grow on my balcony. I have a small balcony with a few pots of flowers, and these are the things I see more when I'm sitting at my desk, and every time I look up from the drawing I'm doing, out of the window, this is what I see. I get distracted, but the distraction brings me right back to the need to draw, so I take another piece of paper and try to sketch the plants, their colors, the shadows and the light reflections dancing on their leaves. When I go back to the work I was previously doing, a little bit of these sketches is transferred into it, and this tells me that my drawings (my thoughts), though apparently distant and very different from each other, talk, communicate and transmit the information all together. ORIGINAL SOLD.

Boy with green eyes

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “They sleep on the hill”, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, 2005.

Our mother

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 2001, 70 x 100 cm. Where does it come from this remembrance of a bad mother? Where did it was born this idea of ​​an oppressive authority? What had we made, my sister and I? Had we to be punished? Had we to be judged for a bad action? But my mother wasn’t like this. Why these bad thoughts? The fragile glass bulbs are stored safe on the top of tall cabinets, so that the children can not reach them, and break.

Chromosome number 15

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Chromosomes”, oil and pencil on paper, 17 x 17 cm, 2001. A series of very simple small works, almost trivial: each drawing depicts a face and an expression.

Ivy

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Botany’s notebook”, oil and pencil on paper. 16 x 30 cm, 1999. ORIGINAL SOLD.

Snake

federico cortese

A piece from the series “Snow flakes”, ink and paint on paper, 30 x 30 cm. Someone teaches us that the snowflakes are different from each other since we are small children. We learn that they are formed with a crystallization process that follows a geometric pattern that changes each time, indefinitely, never having the possibility of a repetition. The ice crystal takes shape slowly, expanding from a central point to the surrounding space, obeying to some strict symmetrical scheme, until all unallocated space is filled with these icy branches. What happens if in this process, the atoms of the water, in the meanwhile they are solidifying, encounter an obstacle, a slag, an impurity? Will it also remain trapped inside the grid? Will it be absorbed by this geometric cage, or would be able to break the symmetry, imposing its diversity?

Kingfisher

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “In the absence of God”, oil and pencil on paper, 28 x 40 cm, 1999. The medieval illustrators represented animals that they had never seen, described by others, or derived from mythology. This generated monstrous creatures. From here comes the idea of a common set of animals, which are deformed with the help of redundant decorative codes. These artworks are made on paper overlaying subsequent layers of oil painting and pencil drawing (I often use graphite not only to emphasize the traits but as a colour itself, to fill and darken entire areas of the drawing).

Sunflowers

federico cortese

Oil and pencil on paper,100 x 60 cm, 1997.

rocking horse

federico cortese

Colored pencils on paper, 33 x 24 cm, 1996.

The drinker

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm, 1991.

Rotten fruit

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm, 1990.

Civic Center with Matrioska

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Red Star”, oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm, 2017.

Pottery

federico cortese

Oil on paper, 32.5 x 50 cm, 2017

Winter woods

federico cortese

Oil on wood panel, 106 x 63 cm, 2015. This painting was inspired by a scene in the movie "Grand Budapest Hotel". The two protagonists are travelling on a train, crossing winter melancholic landscapes, covered by snow and with few leafless trees emerging from it. The scene gives a sense of expectation, and what is dead in it suggests a new beginning.

Pottery

federico cortese

Pottery - Oil on paper, 32.5 x 50 cm, 2017.

Memory of St Petersburg

federico cortese

When, in my holidays, I go to visit a seaside town or a river town, it often happens that I am involved into the classic tourist trip on the boat, or vessel. Such an experience, by definition, is a little superficial: the distance from the coast, the movement, the limited time, all these elements combined together make the perception confused. But at the same time, perhaps for the fact that the focus can not dwell deeply on anything specific, the end of this experience gives a reminder of the whole, that could reveal the spirit of that place. It 's true, the details are confused, the facades of the buildings overlap, we are no longer sure if the front of that palace was on the Grand Canal or the Giudecca, but probably at the end of the journey, that will remain our most intense memory of Venice.

The cities of Mars

federico cortese

An original piece from the series “Code”, oil on paper, 50 x 28 cm, 2016. A map is an imprint, a sign of man in the landscape. An alien intelligence, observing our cities from the great distances of the space, could interpret them as the characters of an alphabet, sort of messages, a code of signs, each one different from the other, each with its own meaning and its own syntax. This hypothetical alien presence may not even realize that these cities have a purpose and a function, which are the product of the way we have adapted to live on this planet, but it could engage in an attempt to interpret this unknown language, identifying the alphabet and associating to each character a precise meaning. We will still be able to understand and share this new meanings, or will they have lost any sense for us?

Psychedelic Octopus

federico cortese

Oil on Canson paper (290 g/mq), 28 x 50 cm, 2016. The fantastic world of animals. When I was a kid I went crazy for these small encyclopedias for children, where all the animal species were cataloged, and were represented with drawings rather than with images. Those drawings, although very detailed, left much to the imagination. It was as if some white space at the edges of the image were put there on purpose, to allow the viewer to complete, with the imagination, the work of describing that animal. Perhaps it is from this childhood passion that comes to me a certain obsession for animals, and a vice that leads me, starting from a detail or from a certain peculiarity, to exaggerate, to overstate the decorations and the colors, to allow the polyps to emit colored and psychedelic inks.

The cities of the Moon

federico cortese

From the series “Code”, oil and graphite pencil on paper, 30 x 30 cm, 2016. A map is an imprint, a sign of man in the landscape. An alien intelligence, observing our cities from the great distances of the space, could interpret them as the characters of an alphabet, sort of messages, a code of signs, each one different from the other, each with its own meaning and its own syntax. This hypothetical alien presence may not even realize that these cities have a purpose and a function, which are the product of the way we have adapted to live on this planet, but it could engage in an attempt to interpret this unknown language, identifying the alphabet and associating to each character a precise meaning. We will still be able to understand and share this new meanings, or will they have lost any sense for us?

Abandoned room with the Empire State Building

federico cortese

from the series "Abandoned rooms", oil on canvas. 40 x 70 cm. This series of paintings was inspired by the metaphysical landscapes of De Chirico. I have always been fascinated by their clear vision of the architecture, with the precise design of the shadows, almost anticipating the modern use of three-dimensional modeling software. In the way I feel, however, more introverted and almost unsociable, the outer space is transformed into a closed one, private and protected, from which the human presence is totally gone away. In those rooms then, it may happen that some strange objects and some unexpected decorations appear, suggesting that the person who lives there has overcome the lack of relationship to the outside world with the richness and complexity of his inner world.

Eros ai Musei Capitolini

federico cortese

From the series “The color of memory”, oil on paper, 35 x 35 cm.

The red Star

federico cortese

oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm.

The great beauty

federico cortese

Oil on canvas, 75 x 130 cm, 2015

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federico cortese

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