The Playboy Painting

ROSSANO POLETTI Carpi – Italy, 1970 I was born in Carpi, Northern Italy and I was educated starting to draw and paint at a very young age displaying a profound aptitude for art. I entered primary school receiving tuition and encouragement by my art teacher to participate in art-related activities. I was later educated in Tuscany (Grosseto) studying methods of painting, drawing, and art history trough different techniques such as Encausto and Trompe d’Oeil but still consider my art education as a self made painter. I have gained a certain celebrity status amidst famous prizes and my art became more personal, beginning my art career at the age of twenty. My first official recognition came in 1996 during my solo exhibition in Modena. I have then exhibited my works between Bologna, Milan and Tuscany trough a number of successful events. In 1997 I moved to London following my passion for the colors and cosmopolitan atmosphere of the capital. Here, I have found the perfect mixed between Art and contemporary Society. I describe my type of work as Figurative, clearly derived from real or imaginary scenes and imaginary people representing the human figure and are therefore, by definition, representational. My “Figurative art” is often defined in contrast to my abstract art representing in large scale common people on their habits and life styles. Since the first abstract works from my early age, I have been used the term “figurative” to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world and space around me. However, I used “abstract” as a synonym for non-representational and non-objective which has no derivation from figures, objects or concepts represented, instead, only by forms and strong colours. My common genre of “portraits” has the intent to depict the visual appearance of the subject. I usually applied this term to the depiction of human subjects whenever I work on commission, for public and private persons, or may be inspired by admiration or affection for the subject. Among the other possible variables, the subject can be clothed or nude; indoors or out; standing, seated, reclining. They can be created in various media including oils, acrylics, pencil, charcoal, pastel and mixed media combining a range of painting techniques – gluing, dripping, pouring and glazing- to produce these natural, haunting images.