Italian artist painting silent, tranquil and isolated landscapes - exploring forgotten memories and the relationship between time and memory
In 1975 Alessandro Tofanelli was awarded first prize among young painters for “The Resistance” (the painting is on display in the Gallery of Modern Art of Lucca), and also won the prize in the “Ina-Touring Competition” at the Palace Chokes in Florence where he was recognised as the most promising young Italian artist. Tofanelli graduated from the Arts’ Institute in Lucca and later moved to Milan, where he attended the Brera Art Academy. Whilst in Milan, Tofanelli collaborated as an illustrator for several magazines by the famous Italian publishers Rizzoli and Mondadori. His talent was later confirmed by other awards: the Giotto gold medal in 1984, Under 35 of Bologna in 1987, Prize Wave Verde of Florence, and Prize Mediterranean Ibla.
Alessandro Tofanelli is a modern day master of old-age techniques. He captures the instantaneousness of a forgotten memory: isolated, silent, free. His paintings are not merely to be seen but also to be listened to: the silence of stillness, slowly built up by colour, of what is so loved as to be unapproachable, sacred and not of this world. His poetry with the brush finds its place and is drawn into a rigorous balance of form and imagination.
When asked about his painting, Tofanelli states that he wants to investigate the relationship between time and memory, and to properly do this he has chosen landscape as his subject. Landscape, to him, is a privileged point of observation to contemplate the flow of time as well as to place memories of forgotten places and people whom he wishes to remember. Although he paints landscapes, Tofanelli is no conventional genre painter. The perspectives are tenderly distorted, so that depictions of grass and trees and horizons become subtle evocations of memory and passing time.
Tofanelli is a romantic who takes his time. His brush strokes accentuate each blade of grass, each branch of a tree, each flower in a meadow in way that is a soft and mottled. It is as if he caressing the nature he loves with complete tenderness. This quality is revealed in a multitude of ways, where he sees beauty in the simple, elegance of nature. His paintings inspire a feeling of tranquility and we can only observe, with discretion, the details and "listen to" that spontaneous and slowly uncontainable creative force which characterises each detail of his paintings.
Tofanelli has exhibited his work in a number of prestigious galleries throughout Italy and abroad and has always combined his painting with his work as a professional photographer and a television video-documentarist. He has made numerous videos aired on the Italian network RAI (especially for scientific naturalistic programs like Green Wave, Geo etc.). He was honoured at the San Francisco film festival in 2005 for his award winning film, Unnatural (Contronatura). Directed by Alessandro Tofanelli this stunning black-and-white film contrasts the existential differences between rural woodcutter Giacomo (Andrea di Stefano, Before Night Falls) and local pharmacist's wife Francesca (Valeria Cavalli, Everybody's Fine) in this romantic drama.
