Piazza Maggiorata

Photo-Painting realized by Dario Cusani. Certificate of authenticity by the Artist.

TECHNIQUE PHOTO-PAINTING
The technique used was defined as PHOTO-PAINTING by the art critic Silvia Pegoraro of Ravenna Italy and was my invention in 1994. In fact, since 1964 I had been working with photography and painting which had never been united.
In 1994 I returned to Naples, the city where I was born and had been missing for 10 years after moving to Rome in 1984. I returned to see the MIRACLE achieved by the G7 with the Presidents of the most powerful countries led by Bill Clinton, US President. It was a wonderful visit to my city reborn in its ancient splendor! I took over 5,000 photos of the squares and monuments of Naples with my Nikon. I returned to Rome and had all the photos printed and put them on various tables and assembled all the various pieces. I immediately realized that parts were missing which I completed with paint. A spontaneous gesture with which I had unconsciously achieved a great innovation: I had combined the REALITY of photography with the DREAM represented by painting. Silvia, my muse who knew me well, when I showed her the first work IMPERATING MALE (R:0176) that I had done she said to me: "Dario you have united the TWO WORLDS of your life: that of your childhood with the sensitivity of the dreamer with the concrete one that they gave you taught your parents with education, studies (degree in Economic Sciences) and work started at 15 years old in your family's copper industry. These formative years had distanced myself from those of childhood when I studied the piano and dreamed of becoming an orchestra conductor. I also drew and painted with my imagination in search of the affections I was missing.  In fact my parents were busy in the factory (copper production) rebuilding Italy destroyed by the recently ended war. I then refined PHOTO-PAINTING which developed into DIGITAL PROCESSING having replaced the BRUSH with the MOUSE to fill the gaps left by the photography and complete the REALITY which with painting became another FANTASTIC reality.

PLACES OF MEMORY Cities
This work is part of the "research" PLACES OF MEMORY Cities revisited by me in a fantastic way. In fact I use my exclusive PHOTOPAINTING technique with a photographic element to which I add painting (oil or acrylic) to create a NEW REALITY.

PIAZZA MAGGIORATA
The large square of Bologna is the center of the city where citizens and especially young people gather. Important political rallies and major musical and cultural events take place here as the people of Bologna have great vitality. In the painting you can see that I have torn up the square which is generally surrounded by buildings while I have joined 2 sides between the basilica of San Petronio and the Palazzo del Podestà resting on the horizon line. This is the photographic part with a single large photocollage resting on the horizon which makes it larger. Hence the title of MAGGIORATA which identifies a "plus-sized" woman with generous forms who cheerfully welcome people. Right near Piazza Maggiore in the heart of Bologna in an important gallery in 1997 about thirty works, carried out exclusively in the city, which were very successful.