En Plein Air
Solo exhibition, 2023
Spazio C21, Reggio Emilia (Italy)

Curated by Antonio Grulli
1841 and 1949. Because sometimes, to desire something is not enough, but material and technological circumstances are required for it to come to fruition. And these circumstances often trigger a reaction, the emergence of energies and frictions already present that are finally released, made manifest. In 1841, the American portraitist John Rand invents the first tin collapsible paint tubes to replace the old and inconvenient containers used to store oil paint. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, on this regard, will have this to say, ‘Without colours in tubes, there would be no Cézanne, no Monet, no Pissarro, and no Impressionism’. Paint tubes enable painters to paint for hours on end with ease and comfort outside their studios. En plein air painting is born. A revolution that strenghtens some core characteristics of being an artist in the world.

It is often assumed that a hiatus between art and people took place from the historical avant-garde period onwards, but that is not the case. True art, new art, is a terroristic act because it shows people that the spirit of the time has completely changed. It upsets our beliefs, and there is nothing pleasant or accommodating about it. True art is uncomfortable, it disturbs, it takes hold and destroys us. The birth of en plein air painting causes a furious reaction from the masses who vehemently oppose this new kind of painting. And the artists, traveling the world, freed from their studios, so independent and abnormal, so extra, they are even more terrifying than their paintings. Vincent Van Gogh is killed for this; and if we don’t want to believe this version of the story, we can’t deny that it is ‘suicide by society’. Something very similar happens to Renoir, and he just barely saves himself. In 1949, Edward Seymour introduces spray paint for the first time. Artists have a new tool, an even faster one, an even more convenient one, one that suggests original stylistic and formal solutions. This simple innovation, the introduction of colour in a pre-existing tool produces an earthquake still underway today.

And here comes CANEMORTO’s exhibition. The entire project is a gigantic and poetic tribute to en plein air painting; ancestors like Renoir, Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, who first put colour in their rucksacks and hats on their head and went out to make trouble. It is a poetic tribute in classic CANEMORTO’s style, the hooligan joke becomes affinity and trick to embrace that which seems distant and different. The cornerstone of the entire exhibition is the video documenting their participation to an extemporaneous en plein air painting contest that took place in previous months. A contest CANEMORTO not only took part in, but one they won (it’s all true, I swear) even though they did everything they could to lose. From this moment, a sequence of absolutely crazy events unfolds, always between cockiness and misery, piss-taking and generosity, folly and intellectual honesty; all elements true to their art, especially the many videos realised both as artwork and mean of communication with their audience.

A series of paintings in which they confront themselves with en plein air and landscape painting adds to the exhibition. CANEMORTO have always had a soul deeply embedded with historical art experiences, above all others with early nineteenth century avant-garde. In these paintings, I felt the taste of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s jugged and sharp line, his Swiss exile alpine landscapes reflecting the darkness of times mankind is sometimes called to live in; I found the black skies of Diego Rivera’s murals at the Ministry of Public Education in Mexico City, under which a revolution was attempted; I discovered Paul Gauguin’s shapes, hidden in a landscape too imbued with melancholy to be recognised as earthly paradise.

Antonio Grulli


WATCH THE TRAILER

Directed and edited by Marco Proserpio
Written and performed by CANEMORTO
Filmed by Marco Proserpio and Matteo Berardone
Audio mixing and original music by Matteo Pansana

Photographs by Fabrizio Cicconi




Projects