Masks_1-22 Painting

This painting belongs to my new series of works entitled "Masks". The interest in masks in the history of man comes from my personal reflection on increasingly widespread loss of individuality for the benefit of personal identity: “Erich Fromm described modern man as an individual with two faces: on the one hand independent, self-sufficient and critical, on the other isolated and fearful. The feeling of isolation and helplessness is frightening and normal people dilute it in the daily routine, in economic success, in worldly distractions while the so-called neurotics transcend it in art, in writing, in music. Having to face God (or the Market) alone, man seeks salvation in a new submission. We have pointed out the economic conditions which in our time favor the growing isolation and growing helplessness of the individual; examining the psychological results we have shown that this impotence leads either to the type of flight that we find in the authoritarian character, or to an obsessive conformism in the course of which the individual becomes an automaton, loses his individuality and yet at the same time at the level of consciousness he imagines himself free and subject only to himself " “According to Goffman we therefore live in a world of representations in which everyone (without exception) plays a part (or parts) adapting to the culture of his world and his time. Modernity has introduced into culture a way (a power) to silence the doubts and anxiety of the modern individual. This power has been interpreted by the global market that has imposed the masks suggested by the market economy: lifestyles and behavior that are expressed in clothes, cars, homes, travel and a whole series of technological fetishes (smartphones, smartwatches, etc. ) that allow you to "conform" to your company to the detriment of your individuality. " This ongoing series is dedicated to the great artist, brilliant humorous designer, Saul Steinberg.