artwork number 11
“144 – Jazz Trio” – Cesare Catania – Contemporary Painting
Year: 2014-2015
Dimensions: front 150 cm x 250 cm – back 150 cm x 120 cm
Technique: Chalk, natural pigments, natural rope and acrylic on canvas
Description:
This is absolutely the first work where Cesare Catania expresses his art “overlapping panels.”
This 3D painting-sculpture describes the environment surrounding the author very well, inspired during a jazz concert (from this the second part of the title “Jazz Trio”) and represents in a single picture all the items on and off the stage: the piano, bass, saxophone and listeners (a man and a woman). The main voice is that of the piano that imposes itself on the other instruments with a harmonious and determined sound on the fist pannel. The keys hover on a red and slippery carpet, to form a piece that embraces everyone, both on and off the stage. The keyboard is dissembled on several levels (it is clear that the keys have different sizes depending on the distance of the background level from the main panel), used to connect the bass and sax. All to compose a joyful melody of which the author also expresses the tempo: notice a dissembled metronome at the bottom left can be seen in fact beating time “Allegro – 144 beats per minute” (hence the title of the picture “144”).
With the technique of “overlapping panels” Cesare Catania wants to show all the dynamism of the scene around him. In this way the author takes a photograph of all the actions, sounds and feelings that surround it, merging into a single work the different overlapped panels of the surrounding world. The work was carried out deliberately on two canvases, joined together by hinges and able to open and close like a musical score. The front of the score (the back of the canvas), also worked and painted, contains the title of the work and the author’s signature.