Guerrino Boatto

Guerrino Boatto (born March 5, 1946) is an acclaimed Italian illustrator and painter, and probably one of few to master spray painting to the highest level of art. In the year 2000, Boatto was awarded the Gold Award for design and illustration in Venice, Italy by the then rector of the Art School of Venice (Liceo Artistico Statale "Michelangelo Guggenheim"), from where he graduated in 1969.[1]

Early life

Boatto was born in Codroipo, Udine, Italy, the son of a rail engineer. In 1949 his family moved to Venice, where he then studied art at the Art School of Venice (Liceo Artistico Statale "Michelangelo Guggenheim") until 1969 and industrial design at the Venice's University IUAV until 1971.[2] Since he was a kid he gave samples of his ability by hand-drawing. His uncle, the celebrated Louis Bosa (his mother’s elder brother), himself a well recognized American artist (Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York and Whitney Museum of American Art - New York among others),[3] once touring Venice, encouraged his family to let the young Guerrino to express himself by painting.

Career

Boatto started his career as an art director with a well-known advertisement company but soon after he left for the United States, where he went to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art College.[4] After completing his formation he was requested to teach there but he preferred to move back to Venice and start a new career as an independent painter. His connections with the advertisements agencies brought him to create many artworks that have been used for advertising on giant billboards. At that time, in the 1980s and early 1990s, no computer or printer plotters could have done that job but, soon after, in the late 1990s, he was then replaced by the machines, although his point of view as an artist is still looked after from the establishment.

During his career as an illustrator, he created art works for several companies, among which are: Barilla, Coca Cola, Fiat, Ford, IBM, Levi's, Volkswagen, Zanussi, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, Nestlè, Pirelli, Sony, Swatch and many others.[5] Because of its good relationship with Ford, it has been possible for him to create paintings of various models of vintage cars and others. Famous is the series created for the Ford calendar for the year 1993. But the best art works from Boatto came from his own inspiration, like the Matite or the Biglie, which he draws in several forms. Guerrino Boatto is represented by Hilary Bradford and Ass. in Italy,[6] Margarethe Hubauer in Germany [7] and ICO HQ Publishing House (Japan) ICO HQ in Japan [8]

Style

For most of his career, Boatto has worked predominantly with airbrush, and finishing with pastels, markers or oil ink, creating series of colorful canvasses depicting commercial and artistic solutions. However, he has now largely abandoned commercial airbrush works in favor of more artistic ones. Boatto is considered the master hyperreal in Illustration, which favorably compares among well known artists of the so-called Photorealism in USA.[9] The colors have been mastered by Boatto with incredibly ability and famous is his deep blue.

Boatto has been for long time courted by the airbrush industry as one of the more versatile and artistic example to be brought in front of new adepts. He was for long been invited in exhibitions, where he was venerated by the new students. This also apparently inspired last year's homage to the 2009s in Aero Art Action Magazine (#pdf) which featured on its cover a photograph of one of his airbrush-style perfection painting,[10]

"His most distinctive stylistic innovation is that of a representation of image all too real, so disturbing our aesthetic sense; but the same feeling, I think, got who were in Rome - on the ridge between the sixteenth and seventeenth century - and saw the brutal paintings of Caravaggio, and then, more than two centuries later, still were baffled in front of a Venice too real painted by Canaletto. The embarrassing question is: are we not victims of clichés, this time, born from the contrast between painting and photography, including traditional craftsmanship and mechanical standardization? We have to get used to looking through the image, as did the readers of medieval codes? Is Boatto a new amanuensis gifted of great patience?" [11] "He calls them technical performances. Maybe, but I prefer to speak of real painting. Not only that, but it seems to me that what he does, Guerrino Boatto, is part of the great historical retum. It is a way to return to the truth of painting that reminds me, for example, of Canaletto or Caravaggio." [11] Boatto - who has been called by Pier Paolo Cornieto "one of the greatest illustrators of the world" - looks like anything but a pure virtuoso, an anachronistic in love with the painting technique itself. He is at best a noble tendency, yes based mainly on the optical properties, but also on a clear pictorial sensibility. The fact is that the reproductions, especially in catalog format, are misleading. You must bring the original painting close to the eyes and fix on any particular, perhaps on a red Ford, to capture the values of his painting technique that generally escape.[11]

It is not mere repetition of reality such as photos. Painted objects have a something more, like a "soul", suggests Boatto. "The technique needed to achieve hyper-realistic effect - says the artist - is the use of airbrush ...”. And by the repeated spraying emerge, little by little, details, transparency, and the chrome effect, and that original "nuanced" which is essential to give the illusion of objects in the background, blurred to the subject. A technique which is not easy, practiced by few.[12]

His main influences were people like Walt Disney.[10] He continues to live and work in Venice although a progressive illness has slow down his activities. He recently{November 2011} has opened his own studio for teaching, something people recognize as another of his ability.

Commercial works for advertisement

  1. ^ a b c http://www.adci.it/awards.php?id=66&titolo=&agenzia=&cliente=&credits=Boatto&idann=0&c=&p=Shortlist

References

  1. ↑ Istituto d’Arte – Venezia http://www.istarte.provincia.venezia.it/
  2. ↑ Aero Art Action, 1-2009
  3. ↑ 03/27/06, Mullimedia Entertainment, John Mulligan, space_kitten@msn.com, ver. 3.1,. "Casabosa Galleria - Fine Art by the Artist Louis Bosa". casabosa.com. Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  4. ↑ Academy Of Art College, San Francisco, California, USA http://www.academyart.edu/
  5. ↑ "Guerrinoboatto.com". www.guerrinoboatto.com. Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  6. ↑ "Hilary Bradford + Associates". www.hilarybradford.com. Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  7. ↑ "Margarethe - International Illustrations". www.margarethe-illustration.com. Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  8. ↑ "Guerrino Boatto". 1worldart.com. Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  9. ↑ "Riccardo Petito, Il Gazzettino – Venezia
  10. 1 2 "Aero Art Action, 2009, #1"
  11. 1 2 3 Il Gazzettino - Paolo Rizzi - art critic
  12. ↑ "Serena Spinazzi Lucchesi - Gente Veneta, no.36 del 7 Ottobre 2000"

External links

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