Marco del Re

The work

Figure with tool III
2005
160 x 120 cm
Oil on Nepalese paper

The work consists of a large, abstract, rounded red shape on which the artist has drawn the silhouette of a seated nude female figure in black. The head is in profile with a large eye and archaic hairstyle, the lower shadow of the eye marked with simple black strokes. The arms surround the head, the right arm passing in front and the left arm behind. The lower part of the body accentuates the archaic and austere forms of classical Mediterranean statuary, so that the work contains all its features, from the Mycenaean period to the neoclassicism of the 20th century, without forgetting Cubism. At the height of the middle of the body floats a red outline (the tool?) reminiscent of the silhouette of a classical tetrastyle temple with the top of the first column broken.

The artist

(Rome, 1950 – Paris, 2019)

Marco Del Re was an Italian painter and engraver. In 1970, he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture and also devoted himself to photography and theater. The Milanese gallery owner and critic Arturo Schwarz encouraged him to devote himself to painting and engraving.
His research led him to experiment with various artistic techniques, from lithography to woodcut and monotype, and the use of many media, from paper to canvas, from wood to ceramics, from guaix to inks.
In 1974, he held his first solo exhibition, presented by Arturo Schwarz, at the La Bussola Gallery in Turin. Since then, he has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and Europe.
In 1988, he created his first original lithograph for the Artisti Italiani exhibition at the Maeght Gallery, which marked the beginning of a lifelong collaboration.

Marco Del Re’s artistic poetics is a tribute to the history of art, mythology, and literature reinterpreted with his own personal taste. The clear and decisive lines that characterize his drawing and painting show the influence of Roman statuary, primitivism, and the great nudes of the classical tradition.

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