Concetto Pozzati

Critical text

The works on paper from the 1970s by Concetto Pozzati (1935, Vo', Padova – 2017, Bologna) move away from the previous production connected with consumer goods, particularly fruit. In these collages the rose appears together with its petals, a lyrical symbol of perishability and the inexorable pace of time. The true protagonists, however, are the envelopes, nostalgic apparitions of broken ties, in pale yellow and rose hues, echoes of lives that once were. These envelopes, combined in delicate arrays, speak of absences, opened or closed, and have contained secrets and confided feelings, conveying the tenderness of relationships and memories. The central theme is the time spent, indubitably for writing, but also the time revealed by the correspondence, and what has been received in terms of affection, relations, emotional nourishment. The rose and the leaf that peek out from an open envelope are a reference to the need for nature and the complementary role of human beings in its regard, who stray too far away from it and then suffer from its absence. The rose, the flower par excellence connected to giving and feelings of love, is portrayed as if the artist were lingering over its archetypal value, in the enchantment of surprise and tribute, an icon of the inexpressible beauty of creation and elective correspondences.

Text by Irina Zucca Alessandrelli

The artist’s voice

They call me a ‘’robber‘’, a ‘’kleptomaniac‘’, a ‘’painting corsair‘’. The impulse to “steal” is an intellectual disease, it is a way of being.