BRUNO DOZZINI – 29 January 1998
Reflecting on the art of Giovanna Bruschi one cannot help but think that sometimes the ineffable, by its nature alien to any kind of representation, can instead coincide in mysterious ways with the tangible sphere of the visible. Historically, such rare coincidences could be labeled “abstract/concrete” if it is true that Lionello Venturi already coined this term, finding himself in the same quagmire that one feels when no longer able to unravel what belongs to reality from the realm of the surreal. Giovanna Bruschi (and we like to dwell mainly on this aspect of her art) has succeeded in disclosing her special talent, which is what is revealed through the field of religious mysticism. Yet, we must be aware that a sacred artistic subject may not necessarily be religious and vice versa, and this may explain a dualism in the artistic world of Bruschi with equal satisfying results in both fields of investigation. In this artist’s vision, the pictorial genre extends more incisively beyond the area of intuition and logic, and – following an established assumption – ideas are at the foundation of reality. There is no need to quote Leonardo while asking ourselves the following question: can beauty be ethical? Bruschi’s knowledge is an awareness of a reality within a dimension of “non-reality”, with harmonious results in terms of reflection, meditation and technique. Many of her projects resemble medieval glass painting or abstractionism due to the inherent cognitive processes of reality, the interpretation of signs, and the chromatic palette which allows us to witness the artist’s handling of her subject-matter, and how this process leads to the full attention of the observers, a truly poignant moment that enables part of her soul to remain alive on the canvas or on the paper. And this is possible because her brush, or her burin, avoiding all surface decor, wish to escape the time/space constraints by reducing everything to a light and shadow play fluctuating in the rhythm of hope and love. Bruschi’s technique, always masterfully controlled, performs the highest tasks, through subdued curvilinear shapes, and the lightness of the waves emanating rays of light. The resulting mystical development is not casually achieved but spiritually possessed by the artist, so that her graphic expression becomes a matrix for new visions directly evolving from her soul, an inner force that nothing or nobody will ever be able to hush. Giovanna Bruschi believes that the sky and the earth touch each other and even when she resorts to very small formats, the predilection for the “synthetic” is a clear manifestation that echoes a desire for the absolute and a need for truth.
