Starting from this Liberty inspiration – a key point in Giorgio Gessi’ s art – it’ s also easy to understand his deep love for Japan. The artist claims that a visit to the wonderful Chiossone museum in Genoa – a place which prominently features works of art from the Land of the Rising Sun – gave him such a positive shock that he was prompted to start new and more in-depth studies on this culture, which culminated in some long and passionate( non-touristic) visits to that wonderful faraway land. After all, Japonisme had already influenced a lot of Western art in the late nineteenth century( especially in France), including Art Nouveau. Influences include Utamaro and Hokusai with their visions, the diffusion of Japanese prints, with curvilinear shapes, illustrated surfaces, contrasting voids and the absolute flatness of their compositions. All this was an important source of inspiration for many artists all over the world.
Giorgio Gessi seizes some moments of real poetry and transfers them onto his favourite“ medium”: glass. Thus emerge works of high lyricism, like“ Alba sul Fujihama”( Dawn on Mount Fuji) with its delicate colours and its magical transparencies, which can be found in“ Aspettando la sera”( Waiting for the night) and“ Airone al chiaro di luna”( Heron in the moonlight). Gessi’ s inspiration also comes from the works of another nature painter from the end of the nineteenth century: Ohara Koson, in front of whose works one should stand in silence, enchanted by such breathtaking beauty. Among Gessi’ s works we can find Geishas and Samurais with their extraordinary garments: they are the witnesses of a millenary culture that is still appreciated today.
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That of the“ female nude” is an artistic genre which has always produced powerfully evocative impressions both in the artist who creates it and in the observer. The same happens to Giorgio Gessi: his nudes, which he calls“ studies”, live with the emotion of the‘ non-colour’. On the black glass panel, the light shows the female body through the engraved lines. In the shadows between visible and invisible, these shapes come to life and show their vitality, wonderfully sparkled by the diamond tip, like wounds and caresses put together. You can live the magic of the moment captured by the artist, between ecstasy and beauty, matter and spirit, symbol and revelation.
Upon this sudden note of intense femininity ends this catalogue, but not Giorgio Gessi’ s search for beauty, always projected towards new and private emotions, which he passionately pours into his art.
F. B. N.