SPIRIT OF AN ARTIST
An artist by
definition must be a free spirit, free from the yoke of
necessity, a being able to play with serious business of
every day living and then always able to fly, to grasp
what maybe others are only able to glimpse. A pure and
fresh spirit like that of a child, a very receptive and
inquisitive being, always animated by the desire to know
and to learn, but also willing and generous in the
offering of himself. A spirit which comes from a constant
perfectioning, upon which meditation and existential pain
has worked as a chisel, smoothing over any rough edges
and voids, creating a work of art of his inner being,
making a special, noble spirit from a common man.
Man like this do exist, artists
in name and deeds, one meets once in a lifetime, and this
is the case of Sergio Zen.
Zen works in a studio
situated amongst the rocky slopes of Valdagno, an
isolated place, which lends itself to reflection and
introspection. His way of acting, his gestures, his
works, immediately reveal his open, radiant personality,
not enbittered by the maliciousness of humanity, whilst
his inner being seems to light up with contact from the
outside world: providing infinite intensely poetic
situations which he then transforms in his paintings. We
are not talking about simple psycology, about
psycological literature on works of art, but about
recognizing painting which comes from an act of
generousity towards the world and not only the
self-affirmation of ego. His attitude towards others one
can also see through his organisation of the choice of
expression, in supplying himself with a sign language as
gestures, and the areas of space-colour interpreted by
emanations, effusions of regenerated energy.
That everything is a
manifestation of energy, is reconfirmed by his instance
on the poetics of colours: "colour as a pure
emotion" (S. Zen), lives within the artist and
reality becomes circumstance, the stimolous for creative
translations from the intense, inner life. Painting in
Zen is born above anything else from an overwhelmning
passion, from a desire to act, rather than contemplate,
communicate. There is no detachment. In fact his
paintings capture you and take you into the picture or
they give themselves to our sensibilities like rivers
overflowing onto parched earth. The fluidity of the
paintings seems continuously renewed by an everlsting
source, and leaves an active, vibrant substance on the
canvas, radiating emotion. Hence, the formal choice of
surfaces are superimposed layared or slide; the texture
indicates space, and acted upon space; the intervention
of units rests light and aerial, rithmic touches which at
times are markedly lirical. Every paiting sets our minds
and hearts a light, aeleiminating the external internal
unrelatedness, the barriers, he boundaries, the hierarchy
of that which is below and that which is above: profondly
penetrating his spirit and ours without frightening us,
but rather enriching us with an authentic sensorial
experience.
An artist by
definition must be a free spirit, free from the yoke of
necessity, a being able to play with serious business of
every day living and then always able to fly, to grasp
what maybe others are only able to glimpse. A pure and
fresh spirit like that of a child, a very receptive and
inquisitive being, always animated by the desire to know
and to learn, but also willing and generous in the
offering of himself. A spirit which comes from a constant
perfectioning, upon which meditation and existential pain
has worked as a chisel, smoothing over any rough edges
and voids, creating a work of art of his inner being,
making a special, noble spirit from a common man.