Novello Finotti is one of the most famous living plastic artists and representative of the old school of sculpture, which knew how to treat the material and loved doing so, experimenting without ceasing new technical and formal solutions, never aiming at themselves.
The B. & M. Foundation of Visual Arts and Music has published an anthology entitled “The Sensual Mysticism of Sculpture”. The exhibition, which was opened on June 4th in the presence of the Greek Minister for Culture, comprises over 65 artworks and thus allows to reconstruct his more than 50 years of research.
PARTICIPATION IN THE 1972 AND 1974 AT VENICE BIENNALS ARE MEMORABLE
Born in Verona in 1939, Finotti attended the Cignaroli Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown, one of the oldest in the world, where he began to refine his knowledge of plastic art and drawing. Numerous awards and exhibitions in public and private spaces during his long career.
Among these, we remember the lucky meeting with the well-known Greek gallerist Alexander Jolas, who will set up an exhibition in his gallery in Milan in 1972. The participation in the XXXIII Venice Biennale in 1966 and the participation in the XLI edition of 1984 with a whole hall are important.
In between, countless exhibitions, including the 1976 Rome Quadriennale and participation at the Armony Gallery in New York in 1964, where he met with the favor of the American collectors.
ACCORDING TO HIM, ART SHOULD NOT SURPRISE BUT ENCOURAGE EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS
As the editor of the Athenian event, Takis Mavrotas, points out in the text in the catalogue, nudity was a recognizable mark of an advanced state of civilization for the Greeks and, at the same time, confirmation of a thought rooted in millenary traditions, who sees the body as a subject of deference and worship.
Finotti maintains a close link with classicism in terms of harmony between form, volume, and composition, while always opting for a marked dynamism, which also recalls terms related to temporality, such as duration and movement.
HE MAINTAINS A CLOSE LINK WITH THE CLASSICISM IN TERMS OF HARMONY BETWEEN FORM, VOLUME AND COMPOSITION
The propensity to experiment is not intended to surprise the observer but rather to encourage him to question existential questions, recognizing to sculpture the title of the most anthropological art as well as being able to translate philosophical thought in plastic form.
White Carrara marble, black from Belgium, rose from Portugal, granite, and bronze translate into sensual and mystical forms the Pindaric flights of the artist’s thought and drag in his personal mythological universe, classic and contemporary together.
In the catalogue, besides the text of the curator, those of the main exegetes such as Antonio Paolucci, Rossana Bossaglia, and José Pierre.
