The faces of memories

Maria Beatrice Coppi’s exclusive creative production has developed, together with an increased sense of tone, out of a fascinating bedrock that is rich in stimuli and significance. The specific point of reference is man, in the entirety of his physical, metaphysical and existential being. All her works establish a meeting point between body and soul, rationality and sentiment, and myth and truth as contrasting elements that come together without jarring the poetry, and bring into view the ancient dualism between matter spirit. This explains the frequent recourse to the theme of the battle, which reflects the costant internal battles between good and evil,that are resolved by the intervention of human will. Thus the scenes of war take on absolute sense that holds validity beyond the references to space and time given by the artist. Irrespective of changes in custom and technological progress, the immutability of human passions is the deepest root for personal conflicts, as it is for the wars around the world. The calm equilibrium which typifies her works staggers under the power of her interior sense of partecipation, which she expresses with expressionistic efficacy. But, even in her most emotionally engaged works her figures withstand this commotion. The irrationality of pain finds a firm reference point in the perfection of the human body, which becomes the irresistible constructive principle of the reality. The stylistic canon for this artist remains a classic one and the references to ancient civilisation are evinced in sober compositions inspired by prestigious art works of the past. The references also involve the subjects represented. Often these are mythical creatures, divinities from the Pantheon of Greece ad Rome, to whom is given the role of evokin the charm and fascination of mythology. This does not signify a pedestrian reproduction of obsolete themes. Her paintings present an original re-interpretation of the imposing cultural heritage of classical antiquity. The creative processes utilised bring the figures back to present reality and inspire lide into the inert materials of which they are composed. The crushed plankton used, aside from containing life itself, also gives the figures the plastic character of three-dimensional form. The ambiguity between image and object is reflected within the work as the ambiguity between sculpture and human body. But the marmoreal detachment characteristics of the statue trasmutes into warm pulsations. By a process that is an inverse form of artistic genesis, the abstract ideal returns to its inspiring model, and lifeless matter is re-endued with the earthly sensuality of flesh. Her ability in the use of materials is best seen in her sculpture in stoneware and those in enfero. These are vigorous works made up of slabs laid one on the other and the cut into, on which the lights reveals monumental volumes. Her research into space has arrived at a perception of the essence of form that has been freed at last from the sterile denotation of detail. Subsequent evolutions in her poetics ha led the artists to expressive solutions that go beyond the bounds of representation. In her most recent paintings her powerful emotional expressions travel markedly informal direction. The paintings are assailed by shudders and anxieties, tumults and infatuations, and distant echoes of a painful memory. If we are silent we can hear her as being closer even then a heart that has no stopped beating, and what we hear is the great and generous heart of Maria Beatrice Coppi