DE COURTEN in Shanghai - September 2008

Franco De Courten's activity always concerns “subjects” developing in “series” of works.
Marks of “subjects” derive from his personal life, quite full as a diplomat from his emotions and sensitivity in observing the world and then breaking it up in his works.
On his occasion, the “subject” develops in a “series” of 101 small oils on paper collected under the little “light steps, deep footprints, story/ memory/ testimony of his long stays in Middle East: Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Syria.
We can find an exact testimony of the attention payed by the author to places and cultural fascinations (“visual emotions”, so defined by the artist) of that part of the world where ancient civilizations contact and confront each other.
The exhibition therefore is articulated on Franco De Courten's memory that deciphers history and reassembles it by means of an intellectual mind, adding short didactic notes about the social and historical reality of the countries, seen and lived in.
His works always follow a neat pace, seeking surprising synthesis both in the framework of the form and in the brightness of the colour.
Master of technique, De Courten condenses in his “collages” the precise vibration of colours and the involving rate of lines balancing them in compositions showing all his artistic restlessness and consciousness.