Biography of Cesare Catania contemporary Italian artist

Biography of Cesare Catania

an art that was born as a child

The Childhood

Cesare Catania’s biography begins with Cesare’s birth in Milan on 1 February 1979. He spent most of his life in his hometown, where he developed, both in his private life and during his study courses, a strong aptitude for graphic arts and pictorial.
Already from childhood he clearly showed, in addition to the figurative arts, his passion for mathematics and music, two disciplines so different from each other and yet so close for Cesare Catania.

His violinist grandfather passed on to him his passion for musical instruments and at the age of 9 Cesare Catania began taking piano lessons. During the following 10 years of piano study he developed a passion for the rigor and creativity of classical music.

The Absence of Prejudice

Cesare Catania’s biography also finds correspondences in mathematics and music, where the author, in the course of his artistic and cultural training, obtains the natural completion of his own essence; on the one hand directed towards the rigorous and schematic way of approaching life and on the other towards a multi-perspective vision of the same. This latter vision will lead him to approach any discipline from different levels and points of view. This absence of prejudice will also be observed in his artistic expressions, capable of capturing the essence of the painted object in highly realistic and detailed paintings (such as in his paintings “Metaphysical Composition” – 2016, in “Artistic Composition” – 2016 , “The Dynamics of Movement” – 2016) and in other abstract and symbolic ones (the “Vanity” – 2014, “Flamingos in the Mirror” – 2015 – the “Tear” – 2012).

The first noteworthy pictorial works date back to 1995, when the artist expressed his creativity during the school hours dedicated to drawing, demonstrating a particular aptitude simultaneously for perspective studies and informal – abstract graphics.

art and science

Love for Engineering and Geometry

In 1998 he enrolled in the faculty of engineering where he perfected his studies in perspective and axonometry and where he learned to observe the problems and reality that surround him by breaking down all the figures into simple three-dimensional polygons.

This ability to decompose and model the solids that surround him is found in his paintings, capable of expressing reality and feelings both with superimposed two-dimensional planes (see for example the paintings “144: Jazz Trio” – 2014, “Nice (A Tribute to Matisse and Chagall)” – 2015) than with the elegant and harmonious juxtaposition of solid and curvilinear figures (as for example in the painting “Summer Readings (Tribute to Pierluigi Nervi)” – 2016)

Art, Science, Mathematics, Photography:
all in the same Artist

In addition to a strong aptitude for both technical sciences and artistic sciences, Cesare Catania has developed a particular passion for photography over the years. In particular, his attention is captured by the colors and the camera’s ability to immortalize all the strength and dynamism of moving scenes in one shot. The same attraction to dynamism can easily be observed in many of his paintings, both the formal ones and the informal and abstract ones. In his “The Violinist from Barcelona – B Version” – 2016, for example, the author portrays the protagonist just like in a photographic shot in which the orchestra and the background disappear to make way for an eccentric and moving musician immortalized in a strong and intense still image.

Mathematics and engineering studies together with a passion for art in general give life to works that harmonize sculpture and painting.
His paintings combine tradition (use of materials such as plaster, wood, stone, oil paint) and innovation (use of silicone and acrylic-based materials). All to create three-dimensional works that “literally come out of the canvas”.

the technique

Love for Matter

Cesare Catania often prepares his canvases with actual static projects and studies, in order to make a fragile and difficult to manipulate material such as plaster, for example, adhere to the canvas in a complete and long-lasting manner. In many of his paintings, the latter is armed with nails and nets to follow the pattern of the drawing, highlighting the author’s ability to blend together creativity and the ability to rationalize and break down the figures in the painting. In the “Lisbon Zoo“, for example, the author portrays, in a vision of overlapping planes, animals such as the elephant, the giraffe and the bull. These, made of plaster and painted with strong acrylic colours, fill the scene on 3 overlapping levels and in a dynamic way.
Cesare Catania’s paintings are a “still image” of actions and feelings, an extreme synthesis between hermeticism and attention to detail.

Fascinated by modern art, architecture, cubism and the pictorial masters of the classical age, Cesare Catania’s artistic maturity is still evolving today; always looking for new techniques to best express his inspirations.