Still life with lamp

A man of exquisite kindness, shy, but with very strong artistic inclination, Carlo Bondioli taught children and teenagers for a long time, trying to describe with simple words the techniques and structures of the great art of the 20th century. He especially loved Pointillism, Divisionism, Morandi. In others words, artists who addressed, with an almost scientific ardor, the mystery of light and the means to grasp it. His favourite subjects were simple views of his city, or the surrounding landscape, humble arrangements of objects that obviously reminded him of the teaching of the great master from Bologna. He excelled in the techniques of engraving, Indian ink drawings, which mirrored the engravings, in which, with a very light touch, he traced thin lines one next to the other, creating luminous slits that magically constructed shapes. The work we see here belongs to the first part of his artistic adventure. An almost impetuous brushstroke defines the flowers, the vegetables, the fruit surrounding the blue lamp reminiscent of Morandi. The result, however, is too personal to be ascribed to a specific artistic trend. Later, and in the last part of his long life, Bondioli created magnificent, almost Japanese views, silent portraits of a fluctuating world, metaphysical beauties in which the universe is celebrated.