ARTWORK NINETY-EIGHT
"The Embrace"G Version
“… I like to go back to working with my imagination on emotions and inspirations from the past… it helps me keep them alive…”
(Cesare Catania)
In this digital work of art the Author retraces the moments that preceded the creation of the The Embrace B Version and creates a work of kinetic and digital art that literally seems to “come out” of the screen.
Year: 2023
Technique: Digital Art
“… The digital version of this work helps me retrace the genesis that led me years earlier to paint that canvas exactly as it is today. This is also what digital art is for, not only to excite the viewer but also to fill the heart of the artist…”
(Cesare Catania)
Description of the Embrace A Version
Two people hugging each other express love and affection together. The canvas of 2016, ‘The Embrace B Version, it represented a statuesque and confident figure on the left; on the right a sincere and passionate one. Firmness on the one hand and dedication on the other are perfectly represented by the mutual positions of the bodies and hands. This digital version, created mainly to describe the moments immediately before that embrace, ends up becoming a full-fledged work of digital art. The Author lets himself be involved by the emotions and imagines the genesis of that embrace as a whirlwind of emotions, stylistically represented by a vortex of particles that literally merge in an enveloping movement to create the individual elements of the bodies. Finally, these, continuing in the rotary movement, compose the two bodies which are finally exactly identical to those of the 2016 canvas, with the only difference that here they “dance” in space.
The final scene shows the two bodies “sinking” into the original canvas, as if the digital and physical artwork ended up coinciding. This technique has already been used in the past by the Author, both in the digital version of “Cubist Scope: Variants of Trois Hommes (where the inspiration comes from)” and in the “Harlequins” D Version. A way that the Italian artist uses to show how in reality physical art and digital art often coincide, leading to the same final result despite following different paths.
Stylistic Insight
The Geometry Behind Shapes Without Time
In this digital work of art (later minted in NFT) we can appreciate all the artist Cesare Catania’s love for geometry.
“Breaking reality into simple polygons is the synthesis operation I prefer” (Cesare Catania)
Catania looks at reality from micro to macro and vice versa. It’s just a question of point of view… He is capable of “photographing” the world around him with both a “wide angle” and a “zoom”. All with extreme versatility and naturalness. This also reflects his love for cinema and photography.
His informal art, which over the years has resulted in Cubism, derives from a process of synthesis that leads him to represent the world around him through the juxtaposition of simple polygons. These are often generated by rotary motions of microscopic particles. The world of genesis merges with the world described in the state in which the artist sees it or imagines it, thus ending up creating a work of art that is abstract with respect to the time in which it is thought.
“… the time of origin of the matter and the moment in which the scene is portrayed end up almost coinciding, almost as if in my head the moment before the emotion and the moment in which the scene arouses my attention are almost coincident in an ideal absolute timeline…” (Cesare Catania)
In this “dance” between past and present, the “light motif” is geometry, understood as the material that contains all the forms used by the Italian artist to “sculpt” his contemporary art pieces.
The digital artwork “The Embrace G Version” clearly falls into the artistic trend that made the Italian artist famous, that of Abbracci. Not only an artistic theme but also and above all a social one, in which art is no longer just the end aimed at by the artist but the means through which to do good.
This dedication to the theme of Hugging was also recognized in 2023 by the American Association of National Hugging Day; January 21st of every year since 1986 has been universally recognized as World Hug Day and in 2023 Cesare Catania was appointed the only official ambassador in the world for the current year of International Hug Day.
A story that starts in 2015 and that from year to year finds its natural place in art and society. An artistic and socio-cultural project that brings people together thanks to contemporary art.
The Importance of an Embrace
The first work entitled “The Embrace” by Cesare Catania is the A Version and was created in 2015. A simple work, created with wax crayons on paper. The work of art entitled “The Embrace A Version” despite its simplicity, is fundamental in the art of Cesare Catania. It is in fact the first of a series that will give life not only to a personal artistic journey of the artist linked to the specific theme but also to a high profile socio-cultural artistic project.
Starting from this first work and those to come, contemporary art exhibitions will be combined over the years, including:
in 2016 at the Swiss Institute of Lugano during the International Week of Italian Culture and Language, an event supported by the Embassies of the Swiss Confederation, the Presidency of the Italian Republic, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Consulate, the theme of the Embrace was addressed by exposing the the work of the same name (this time the B Version)
in 2018 one of Cesare Catania’s Abbracci was exhibited in Montecarlo at the Meridien Hub Gallery
In 2019 the Museum of the Villa Reale in Monza hosts a retrospective of Cesare Catania, an exhibition in which among others one of Cesare Catania’s “hugs” is exhibited
In 2022 the Metaverse opens its doors to the Embrace for the first time, exhibiting among the artist’s many works, also two versions of the Embrace. The exhibition in Cesare Catania’s personal gallery within the Spatial Metaverse can be visited online from any device.
On November 17, 2022, the Embrace Project was officially presented at the Palazzo Pirelli of the Lombardy Region, on the occasion of which two of Cesare Catania’s embraces were admired
in March and April 2023, during one of the stages of the Embrace Project on display at the Museum of Poetry in Piacenza, among the 20 exhibited works by Cesare Catania, 5 different Embraces by Cesare Catania are exhibited
In June and July 2023, 3 Abbracci were exhibited at Cesare Catania’s personal exhibition at Palazzo Donà dalle Rose, an exhibition entitled “The Embrace: the Laboratory of Emotions“
In November 2023, within the exhibition entitled “Artistic Sketches: where Inspiration is born“, an entire section dedicated to embraces will be exhibited, including pictorial and sculptural versions as well as an unpublished version of the artistic sketch of the sculptural version of the Embrace.
From 20.04 to 24.11 2024 the exhibition of the sculptural version of the Embrace at the 80th edition of the Venice Biennale, inside the National Pavilion of Cameroon
…and many more…
Background Culturale
The first Embrace Not forgets for ever...
This means that Abbraccio A Version is considered a milestone in Cesare Catania’s contemporary art and in his artistic evolution.
An Artwork that not only represents the beginning of a collection but also of a thought of democratic art which for the artist will transform into an artistic and socio-cultural project, a project that will lead him to be nominated for 2023 Unique ambassador in the world for International Hugging Day.
The "Embraces" Collection by Cesare Catania
Different expressive ways of expressing the same concept. A hug is the body language that shows attachment, affection, feeling of union.
Art Exhibitions
The Embrace Exhibitions
The exhibition “The Embrace” represents a unique event because in addition to offering the painting of the “Embrace” (A and B Version) for viewing, it offers the public the opportunity to observe two new versions of the Embrace live (C and the D Version) belonging from an executive point of view to the most recent works created by the Artist, always in silicone and acrylic.
Specifically, the Embrace Project has a dual connotation, both artistic and socio-cultural. Furthermore, the evident social impact of the Project itself is undeniable, aiming straight at the values of inclusiveness and sharing, setting as its main objective that of speaking to people all over the world through a universal language, Art, and inviting every human being to emerge from one’s individuality to open up to others in a real and at the same time symbolic embrace.
The Project was born from the Artist’s desire to highlight the urgency and importance of a rapprochement between people, from every point of view and above all following the social detachment imposed in recent years by factors external to the will of the individual.
The traveling exhibition includes several stages.
The Project was officially presented on November 17, 2022 in Milan at the Sala Belvedere of the Pirelli Palace of the Lombardy Region.
The exhibition at the Museum of Poetry in Piacenza represents one of the stages of an exhibition that will visit various cities in Italy and around the world.
There are various stages of the L’Abbraccio exhibition, including the Poetry Museum in Piacenza, the Palazzo Donà dalle Rose in Venice and the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan.
In 2024 the sculpture L’ombra F Version, together with the Phygital version of the same, was presented at the Venice Biennale.
Artistic Background
Painting and Sculpture before Digital Art
Perhaps the best known work from Cesare Catania’s Abbracci collection is “L’Abbraccio” (B Version), it is a tapestry approximately 3 meters high created with a spatula by Cesare Catania in 2016 (oil on canvas technique, 255 x 175cm ). The canvas, clearly cubist-informal, represents in the strict sense a man and a woman embracing each other and in a broader sense the embrace between two people of different colours. The desire to communicate the overcoming of racism and discrimination in general is clear.
The same tapestry was exhibited on 13 October 2016 at the Swiss Institute of Lugano during the International Week of Italian Culture and Language, an event supported by the Embassies of the Swiss Confederation, the Presidency of the Italian Republic, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Consulate.
In 2019 the Tapestry was hosted at the Museum of the Villa Reale in Monza.
The same inspiration is studied and created by the Italian artist also in a sculptural key, with an F Version in rusty and polished steel. A monumental sculpture first and then a reduced series of 1 meter in height, express all the attachment to this artistic path of Cesare Catania.
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