Delhi to Host Italian Abstractionist Francesca Amalia Grimaldi’s Latest Paintings

NEW DELHI:
Renowned Italian painter Francesca Amalia Grimaldi is displaying her latest set of works in the Indian capital from this Friday, sharing her take on the identities and ruminations as a woman artist in a contemporary urban world.

The four-day Metamorphosis at LTC, Bikaner House features Francesca’s reflections on India, following her year-long stay in the country. Author-scholar Uma Nair is the curator of the February 24-27 event by Delhi based Masha Art.

Florence-based Francesca is a trained geologist whose paintings have been on public display for three-and-a-half decades now. The upcoming show at the prestigious venue near India Gate will feature a series of abstract studies created in the mould of modern intensities and expression. The paintings and collages, a total of 32, are done in mixed media and acrylic-on-canvas pastels.

The show will be inaugurated on February 23 evening (Friday, 6 p.m.) by the Italian Ambassador in India H.E. Vincenzo De Luca and art historian and author Aman Nath, who is the founder of Neemrana Hotels. There will also be a preview on the occasion, after which the venue (Near Gate Number 3, Pandara Road) will be open till 9 p.m. On subsequent days, the show will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Francesca, a landscapist-turned-abstractionist, formally studied the Classics and has a degree in geological sciences, from which she draws her deep passion for the history of art while also finding inspiration from nature. Having created ripples in her native country, she will now showcase her masterpieces between 2020 and 2024, after living in India for a year now and appreciating its cultural fabric.

Born and raised on a “beautiful island surrounded by the sea”, Francesca recalls that her initial artistic creations were “deeply influenced by works with a predominantly figurative character”. Her love for landscape painting often “stems from a desire to capture the essence of a place and the beauty that surrounds us”, she notes, adding, “Landscape painting allows me to express their deep connection with the environment and convey their emotional responses to the natural world.”

Curator Uma Nair notes that the paintings in Metamorphosis abandon figurative themes and focuses on the new frontiers of the abstract. These works let the shapes, lines and colour dominate in a bid to reach the manifestation of internal emotions, she notes. “This is done by making use of a language characterised by a contracted drawing synthesis and a great chromatic value,” the curator adds about Francesca, whose works can be found in private collections in Italy and abroad.

To famed Italian critics, Francesca’s works on the subject of the world and her inner rumination, as she faces life in all its many shades and shadows of travels and life’s leanings. Metamorphosis, though, deviates from her course with its abstract studies created in the mould of modern intensities and expression.

“The curatorial intent is to look at the subject through feminine fervour and flavour,” notes Uma Nair. “We strive to look at abstraction in the modern era as a subject of emotive essence and meditative experience.”

The paintings in the exhibition are those of deepened depths of abstract tenor and an understanding of atmospherics beginning with a Goan landscape, an abstract study titled ‘Under the Sea’ and a diptych named ‘For War’.