Source: Riviera Buzz

Official article excerpt:

Why Cesare Catania does justice to his nickname as modern Leonardo da Vinci

The best collectors of contemporary art in the world are on the heels of a young Italian painter and sculptor who is about to give shape to a new artistic era

Once or twice in every generation a visual artist emerges who stands out from the others and who will go down in the annals of history of art. For the beginning of the 21st century, that person was still in focus: the Italian painter and sculptor Cesare Catania. His dramatic and colorful pieces of him are exhibited all over the world, touching the Louvre in Paris with the same readiness as contemporary art museums. He alerts the best contemporary art collectors in the world. He was hailed as the modern Leonardo da Vinci. But his Italian background and his creative talent are by far not all that Cesare Catania shares with one of the greatest artistic geniuses in history.

When science is art and art is science < / p>

In fact there is not a Cesare Catania, but many different versions. There is obviously Cesare the painter and sculptor. But there is also Cesare the expert musician who skillfully played the piano. There is Cesare the mathematician who is fascinated by laws, precision and the language of numbers. Then there is Cesare the CEO who as a structural engineer and business and financial manager with MBA channels his experience in his civil engineering company that signs the managers of large projects such as the Armani stadium, the Milan metro stations and the Siemens headquarters. And there is Cesare the photographer and videographer whose attention is captured by the colors and the camera’s ability to capture in one click all the force and dynamism of moving scenes.

In his multimodal mind, none of these disciplines are mutually exclusive but on the contrary they are complementary and intertwined. He sees art in mathematics … and mathematics in music … and music in sculpture … and sculpture in engineering … and engineering in art. For him they are all part of the same circle.

Where does this abundance of creativity come from? In part it may be in his family roots. Cesare was born in Milan, Italy, in 1979. His grandfather Michelangelo, a famous Sicilian luthier and violinist, passed on his passion for music to his grandson who started playing the piano at the age of nine and in the following years would become very affirmed. But Cesare was not attracted to a musical career. Instead he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps. With his studies in mathematics, engineering and finance behind him, he now runs Catania Group, a renowned 45-year-old family business that supplies structural materials for construction sites.

Under one roof

But to think that Cesare would comfortably lean back in his chair as CEO is not knowing him well. Instead she discovered his love for photography, which – needless to say – he soon learned like a pro. This in return soon led him from the role of spectator to that of actor in the art space, expressing his emotions in paintings and sculptures. And it was there too that he finally found the way to unite all his interests and talents.

His visual art is an explosion of color, where architecture, geometry, cubism, curves and symbolism come together to celebrate a joyful wedding with imaginative imagination. Cesare Catania’s paintings are snapshots of his inner self, “fixed images” of actions and feelings, a synthesis between darkness and attention to detail. He channels Picasso, Matisse and Chagall, freely borrows from abstract, surreal, hyperrealist, informal and cubist art, throws a soup of classical masters, uses various techniques and materials, and happily mixes everything in his signature style, which is best described as “Catanianism”. His sculptures are dramatic works that defy the artistic code by mixing “non-mixable” materials from silicon and acrylic to steel, rope and leather … or sometimes even his own junk, as seen in ReArt, the massive work commissioned by Ministry of Culture of the Italian Government to highlight the waste of human beings.

The observer and the transformer < / p>

Caesar’s work can be challenging but it is never disastrous. On the contrary, he retains a musical … a jazz quality, and the raw energy is tempered by lightness and elegance. And there is a recurring theme: Harlequin.

Harlequin, in his characteristic checkered costume, plays the role of a carefree, agile and cunning servant, who often acts to thwart or unmask his master’s plans . His physical agility and his cheating qualities. As you know the work of Caesar, you have the feeling that Arlecchino is an autobiographical figure. Cesare is an artist but he is also a socially attentive and aware observer who often hides critical messages in plain sight in his paintings and sculptures. “The man who does not see”, for example, is insp