On the pathway to portraits
A narrated biography
of the painter, Paolo Quaresima
Paolo Quaresima lives and works in Merano, the town where he was born in 1962. He chose – and it was a “less mature and balanced” choice – to paint after he left high school.
But life had a detour in store for him. Acceptance at the Academy of Fine Arts seemed bound to a wealth of knowledge that he did not yet possess. So he took the road of community service, which he performed for almost two years as a volunteer with community groups.
An unparalleled singer of the small things in everyday life
The wealth of meetings and experiences that shaped him were fundamental importance in that period was when, in 1984, he successfully enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. In those years, he developed the awareness of having created a sense of a more personal art, that linked to the lives of many people.
Between painting calla lilies and ‘campielli’ came his decisive encounter with Venetian painting. The atmospheric quality of the paintings, their tonal components, the loud colours (as in the paintings of Veronese) would accompany him, as a method and suggestion, along his entire career track.
Representative of what could be defined as great Italian painting, the ones that have their roots in the Renaissance (Alessandra Redaelli)
After leaving the academy, Paolo Quaresima pursued a freelance track. After a period of gaining experience, high quality galleries started to become aware of him. In 2002 he began collaborating with the Forni gallery in Bologna, a historical reference point for figurative painting in Italy.
For years his research focused almost entirely on human figures. Then, almost as a challenge, it was suggested that he measure himself up against still life, a genre within which he soon identified original pathways and extensive slopes.
The innovative cut, and the pleasure of painting this kind of composition drove Quaresima to continue along his track, the one he is still taking today, while his future course has yet to be invented.
