Massacre
Mixed media on canvas
‘Mec-Art’ period ( 1963 – 85 )
Signed and dated 72 lower right
Countersigned, titled and numbered ‘B7 VII – 122’ on the reverse
Dimensions :
Height: 64 3/4 in. Width: 102 in.
Exhibitions :
Bertini. Rétrospective 1948-1984, Paris, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, 1984
Due amici in una vita nell’arte. Bertini Rotella, Malgrate (Lecco), Quadreria, 1996 (smaller analogue canvas)
Gianni Bertini. Percorsi, Florence, Centro d’arte Spaziotempo, 2000 (smaller analogue canvas)
Remarks :
‘Massacre’ is characteristic of the artist’s Mec-Art period, which stands out by the recourse to photographic transfer on emulsified canvas. He uses, reuses a whole imagery of everyday life like, among others, press photos, posters or advertisements, etc. He extracts them from their original context and reappropriates them by integrating them to his piece. Thus he creates astonishment. This act, defined as a ‘bertinization’ of contemporary iconography is the hallmark of the artist. In this piece, several planes are superimposed, creating a puzzling iconography narrative. In the background, an ingenious mise en abîme allows the introduction of a ‘painting within the painting’. The latter is entirely made of shapes borrowed from the world of machinery, which evoke modernity. Several characters are combined to this ‘fictional’ canvas, which come from entirely different contexts: an acrobat, some soldiers and Carmen in the middle. The artist often represents women, sometimes contemporary, sometimes as Madonnas, sometimes pin-ups but always modern and objet of fascination, as is Merimée’s character. This superimposition throws off the reading of the piece, which becomes some kind of unexpected and burlesque circus scene. A smaller analogous piece was displayed in 1996 during the Due amici in una vita nell’arte. Bertini Rotella exhibition in Malgrate (Lecco) and in 2000 at the Gianni Bertini. Percorsi retrospective at the Centro d’arte Spaziotempo in Florence.
