Story of the Artist: Francesco Parimbelli

Francesco Parimbelli has attended art since he was a child, admiring with amazement the images on the books given by his mother. The moments of the winter holidays were spent copying the fantastic figures of Paolo Uccello: St. George and the dragon, the horses and knights of the Battles of San Romano are well imprinted in his memory.

His training path is far from the traditional artistic one: graduated from classical high school and graduated in law. At the time of his studies, he joined the studios of two well-known artists: the sculptor Piero Brolis, from whom he had the first encouragement, and the painter Mario Donizetti, a reference for many years necessary for his training.

Donizetti taught him many techniques, in particular that of varnished and veiled tempera and pastel on prepared board; the indications and the learning that Francesco considers decisive are however those linked to the drawing. It is no coincidence that he made this practice, so essential and apparently simple, his privileged tool, both in the use of graphite pencil and in that of charcoal. The gesture of drawing, an extension of that of the hand, naturally satisfies the needs of meticulous precision or engraved and dramatic expressiveness.

There are many artists that he has progressively discovered and loved over the years: among the many we can mention Durer, Rembrandt, with his human depth, Vermeer, Velazquez, Piero della Francesca, an unfathomable painter who never ceases to fully understand, and even more. He names many artists including Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Degas, and in the last century Kandinskij, Klee, Mondrian, Sironi, Giacometti and many others that he has always admired. 

Contemporary art is further away from his sensitivity, however even in this area he appreciates and names many personalities: Kiefer, Richter, Wallinger, Viola, Dean and others. 

The first significant exhibition itinerary is the “Guests” exhibition at the Ceribelli Gallery in Bergamo in which the drawings of the faces of the elderly were accompanied by the poems of Giovanni Raboni, almost a “counterpoint” that helps to read the works and their spiritual connotation.

And again the exhibition "From the deep waters" in which the anxieties and depths of life are addressed through the insistent and almost obsessive depiction of the wreck of a large disarmed boat, a lugger lying on a lawn near Venice that becomes a metaphor for the body and of the journey of man, with his glory and his wounds.

Another world that the artist is passionate about is that of animals, looked at with curiosity and sympathy.

But everything can be a source of inspiration for him; his work always stems from the encounter with something that attracts him and that he feels the need to stare: it can be the wife depicted from the back on the threshold of the bathroom, her hair gathered up, in the domestic and familiar gesture of adjusting the collar of her nightgown, or the donkeys observed from above during a walk, which then draw an arabesque on the sheet in that unusual visual situation.

When Francesco uses color, he prefers cold shades such as blue and green, sometimes contrasted by a complementary warm lighting.

The graphic choice of black and white, graphite and carbon, is instead that of a "poor" medium that helps expressive essentiality. A character of the drawings on which he is reflecting in this period is the value of white, not a simple element that defines shapes and contours but a dense and pervasive connotation that seems to generate a tensive relationship with space and matter: the white of the sheet becomes presence, reference, space, glow, emptiness. 

Francesco defines himself as shy and awkward and argues that these characteristics are partly reflected in his work as well. With modesty and discretion he speaks to us of his personal and restless journey from which, however, a strong gratitude to life transpires: "my desire is that the subjects and situations I represent can acquire a symbolic, mythical dimension, that is, they can speak of time, of the tragic , of silence, with a spiritual, interior connotation and density. "

All of these experiences are what you will find in the works of this wonderful artist.

For more information on Francesco Parimbelli and his artwork available on Berista.com, you can visit his profile.