Published by Progress Magazine di Approfondimento di Attualità, Economia, Cultura e Lifestyle
April 2022 (Pages 22 - 25)
Interview by Martina Morelli

See pdf version in Italian

Giorgio Pasqualetti studio view in Rome.

The artist Giorgio Pasqualetti and his painting: Ha Long Bay (diptych), 2021, Acrylic on canvas (39.40 x 78.70 in / 100 x 200 cm). Courtesy private collector in Milan.

Giorgio Pasqualetti feels his European artistic identity very deeply. It’s definitely Catalan, in terms of inspiration, although as far as elegance is concerned, it is no doubt all-Italian. Definitely worth looking into.

GQ, Vogue Italia and Vanity Fair have all acknowledged his talent. They all see in him an artist worth keeping an eye on. Collectors and curators have been onto him for quite some time now, and with a very keen interest. Giorgio Pasqualetti’s brilliance, however, speaks for itself. Large scale canvases, large scale surfaces and large scale audiences.A powerful imagination that is not just innovative, but actually redesigns everyday life into pure geometric formalism. The end product is energy, in terms of shapes, color and inspiration. Simple, albeit only at first glance, his art pieces are discreet, elegant and sophisticated, in other words, true “Italian paintings!”.

But the genius of Giorgio Pasqualetti speaks for itself. Large canvases, big surfaces, huge breaths. A powerful imagination that reworks and redesigns everyday life in pure geometric formalism. The result is energy, shapes, colour, inspiration.

Simple only in appearance, discreet, elegant, refined, his are "Italian paintings!".

Martina Morelli: Today, you divide your time between Rome, Milan and Barcelona. In this continuous traveling of yours, which part of your Italian roots to you hang on to? and how has the Catalan culture influenced your work?

Giorgio Pasqualetti: With the city of Barcelona, it was actually love at first sight for me, from the very first time I set foot in it. A love that has endured for the last 15 years. I was immediately fascinated by this city’s multicultural spirit and colors, but also by the architecture of its buildings and the variety of their styles. They have influenced, and continue to influence, many aspects of my work. I believe my pictorial form brings together the originality of Catalan modernism and the elegance of Italian style, the latter being dictated by the classicism of shapes of my hometown, Rome. My paintings are unquestionably Italian paintings!

“I believe my pictorial form brings together the originality of Catalan modernism and the elegance of Italian style, the latter being dictated by the classicism of shapes of my hometown, Rome. My paintings are unquestionably Italian paintings!” 

- Giorgio Pasqualetti

Martina Morelli: What inspires you most?

Giorgio Pasqualetti: To give my subjects shape, I rely on shapes and colors I often find in the architecture of cities, and in nature. I like redesigning images that come from observing metropolitan spaces and contemplating nature, constraining shapes and colors within a geometric structure or perspective plane.

Martina Morelli: In you work, traditional painting techniques come together with a rational methodology. How does the process that combines these two aspects develop?

Giorgio Pasqualetti: I start by observing reality, I photograph it and draw it, and then I paint it on very large canvases. This way of working allows me to best enhance the strong elements of the subject, giving life to rational and geometric images that are based on lines and perspectives.

The end result is abstract works in which you can almost always recognize the subject I wish to depict. Painting, for me, represents the anxiety and the desire to see the finished work, and to give shape to something that was only in my head, at first, but is now a tangible image, visible for all to see. I have unconsciously responded to this need of mine by rationalizing my artwork more and more, to the extent in which there’s an essence of lines and color planes. I’ve therefore eliminated all those elements I felt as superfluous or not essential.

Giorgio Pasqualetti Amazon (diptych), 2021, Acrylic on canvas (38.2 x 102.3 in / 100 x 260 cm). Courtesy Space SBH Gallery, NYC

Martina Morelli: Are there any artists or art pieces that have had a major impact on your artistic development?
 

Giorgio Pasqualetti: Having studied graphic arts, and Maurits Cornelis Escher being one of its major exponent, he is someone that has definitely had a very strong impact on my development. The graphic representations of his subjects are true geometric abstract works of art. Thanks to the city of Barcelona, in recent years it is Antoni Gaudì who has given impetus to my artistic production. This is so, especially with his in-depth study of the fusion between nature and architecture. Another great master painter, to whom I always look with keen interest, especially when it comes to color study, is certainly the Madrid-born Pablo Palazuelo.

Martina Morelli: Making a living with art: how would you describe it, and what would be your advice for new generations?

Giorgio Pasqualetti: Although I’ve been painting ever since I was 14 years old, I have taken this profession up full-time only in the last eight. I used to hear other colleagues debating on the fact that, for every artist, art is a philosophy of life; I can now confirm this theory of theirs. Everyday actions and events in my life, even the most trivial ones, are all meant to, and aimed at, finding their pictorial translation; I fully dedicate myself to those. For an artist, the creative action represents a very private moment. It puts you to the test, both physically and psychologically. It’s a thought that can even take over in the late hours, or in the middle of the night, preventing you from resting; and doesn’t leave you in the daytime either. What relieves this fatigue of mine is studying and research. This is because they help me find a solution to all this thinking. What I would therefore recommend to new generations of artists, is precisely this: studying and carrying out a lot of research.

Giorgio Pasqualetti exhibits at 

Space Gallery NY, St. Barth and Montecarlo. www.spacegallerystbarth.com

Giorgio Pasqualetti studio view in Rome.

The artist Giorgio Pasqualetti and his painting: Amazon (diptych), 2021, Acrylic on canvas (38.2 x 102.3 in / 100 x 260 cm)