Ugo Bongarzoni
Ugo Bongarzoni
Artist - Art critic
He was born in Viterbo (Italy) and graduated at the public scientific high school with the highest grades. He studied Electronic Engineering at "La Sapienza" University of Rome. In a sleepless night, in his hometown, during the period of his father's death, he creates his first painting, a thunderstorm in a rural landscape, in black and white, using his sister's colors and brushes. From that moment he embarks on a self-taught path that he will never leave.
His expression is mainly figurative and he uses different media, preferring a three-dimensional representation.
Convinced about the cultural, communicative and social function of arts, he creates, in the summer of 2012, during the creation of the artwork "The Flight of Daedalus and Icarus" the artistic thought called "Crypticism" (analytical, multi-level, a-stilistic).
The material period, begun in 2003 with the oil painting Medusa (completed only in 2011), continues with the acrylic painting where the interest for the bas-relief naturally evolves into the one of three-dimensional shapes and into an innovative personal technique baptized, in the year 2019 , as "Pittoscultura".
He frequents Roman artists such as Ennio Calabria, Salvatore Provino, Alvaro Caponi and Franco Ferrari with whom he periodically exchanges reflections and experiences.
He shares the experience of "Presenteism" with the artists Carlo Vigevani and Alessandro Piccinini.
In 2018 he created the "Enrico Zarletti" Painting and Sculpture Award for professional artists, and the Hermes UB and Efesto UB trophies for organizational merits in the artistic field, then the Euterpe UB and Vulcano UB trophies for music and artistic craftsmanship . All prizes are awarded in the Historical Lattanzi Palace of Blera (VT).
Extremely slow in execution, he always likes to modify his own works, never considering them completed and, because of this fact, they almost never correspond, in particular, to all the images published in art catalogs.
He uses to hide more signatures in each of his works, one of them is always biological.
He loves to write novels and short stories about art and science fiction .
He is an Art Critic and Curator.
Ugo Bongarzoni "Medusa"
( cm 50x60 oil on relief on canvas - Roma 2011 )
MEDUSA
myth and painting's genesis
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Poseidon falls in love with Medusa, the youngest of the three gorgons, mortal, unlike her two sisters, Euryale (the one who jumps far) and Steno (the strong).
Transformed into sea eagle, he kidnaps and takes her to a temple consecrated to the goddess Athena and there he seduces her.
Medusa who had beautiful hair, hides her face behind the goddess' aegis.
The goddess of reason, born from Zeus' mind, inflicts a terrible punishment on her:
Medusa's beautiful hair is changed into a tangle of deadly snakes ; Medusa is transformed into a hideous monster whose gaze petrifies every living creature.
Condemned to live alone in a cavernous lair, she will end her miserable existence killed by the son of Zeus and Danae ,the hero Perseus, whom Athena and Hermes provide with winged sandals, a sack, a magic helmet of invisibility, a mirror, and a scythe.
Perseus ,after subtracting the three Graeae their one eye, forces them to reveal the place where Medusa lives and ,using the mirror to avoid her lethal gaze, decapitates her.
The winged horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor arise from her blood.
The gorgon's head, carried in the sack, will be used by Perseus to petrify the Titan Atlas, who had denied him hospitality, because an oracle had told him that golden apples in his garden would be stolen , and the Kraken, a horrible sea monster created from his own flesh, by Hades, lord of the underworld, and unleashed by Poseidon who demanded the sacrifice of Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia who had become guilty of saying that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids.
Perseus also petrifies Phineus, Andromeda's uncle who, during his marriage with the girl, advanced claims on his nephew and finally Polydectes , the king of Serifos who was trying to seduce his mother Danae.
Medusa's head was at last offered to Athena, to adorn her shield.
The feeling I had painting this subject was one of piety and sadness .
I have always thought that Medusa's condition represents poor lovers, whose feelings are despised by reason and envy.
The attempt to paint with oils in relief, very daring for a self-taught artist, can lead to total failure, but patience and the intuitive method I adopted allowed me to get a result that I might define 'acceptable' for my skills and my expectations at the time.
Reptiles, such as Medusa's face, have been painted several times, because I was never satisfied.
Using different species gave a particular range of colors and charisma to the image, as if Athena's punishment wasn't able to extinguish mortal maiden's beauty.
Till today I'm still tempted to make changes, to improve the result .
The massive use of walnut odorless oil I adopted to mix colors, is due to my inexperience with oil colors too.
Because of this ,color, even many years after, strains : snake's scales invade those of another, or either Gorgon's face , like colored tears and, in some points, paint dries up and scales.
I like thinking that Medusa, years later, tries to attract my attention, to have my care, to be restored each time.
As if an uncared for lover reminds his distracted companion of her need for kindness.
Starting from the bottom left corner and proceeding clockwise, considering the reptiles out of sight too,we can see (the reference number is in the video's penultimate image):
Egyptian Cobra (1), Cobra Digger (2), Eastern Coral Snake (3) , Reticulated Python (4), Terciopelo (5), Echide Piramidato (6), Great Tail Sea Serpent (7), Mangroves' Snake
(8), Anaconda (9), Copper Head of Australian Plains (10),Silent Rattlesnake (11), Asian Sunshine Snake (12), South Africa Coral Snake (13), Pacific Coast's Parrot Snake (14 ) Boa constrictor (15), Palm Viper of Wagler (16), Cape Cobra (17), Green Python (18), Northern Death Adder (19), Gabon Viper (20), Royal Cobra (21) , Viper with Eyelashes (22), Cascavel (23). The green snake (24) on the front is imaginary.
On Medusa's face a Boomslang (25) and a Black Mamba (26) fall like unruly curls.
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