The various periods DARIO CHIERICALLO
Italy’s Rai TV has been notably interested in the work of painter Chiericallo on various occasions. The TG3 channel amply described 1985’s analogical exhibition organised by Milan’s city council at Palazzo Dugnani, where even the early pieces could be admired, those born out of a need to describe human suffering, with its complexes, anxieties and emotions through dreams.
The artist named this current running through his work, “Psychoanalism”.
In the early years, from 1960, each piece was created after a dream and realised with his new technique: Pure colours, in relief, put directly on the canvas. The colour was squeezed directly out of the tube in points or lines in relief. This new technique meant, for the artist, the will to pull out his very self, his ‘ego’, and place it on the canvas.
The colour in some pieces was individual points, in relief, in other pieces, lines. The predominant colours on his palette were vermilion red, Veronese green, emerald green, cadmium yellow,Indian yellow and cobalt blue.
The characters’ hair is green (a spectral colour, a symbol of psychoanalyses). In every piece, there are claws with flames (signs of suffering).
Further on, from 1966, the pictorial compositions of the artist become stories in themselves, paintings within paintings: the concept-time (clocks in a row, each distinctly showing a different time), the “Oedipus complex” (the boy who becomes an adult, yet remains in the maternal womb due to an overwhelming need to feel protected from where he was born as the world is an enemy tom him).
Then the world of the Geishas, the famous ladies with their little umbrellas in “liberty” style, shown through violent colouting
Towards 1973, Chiericallo underwent a new revolution, both in method and content, with everyday turns and events through “written messages”. For example, in “Accatoni dell’amore” (Love’s Beggars), one feels the compassion of the painter for a certain type of humanity banished from society.
Another “Il gatto” (“The cat”) is symbolic of a timeless story with words that spin around him: a timeless story, typical of a dream, in a three dimensional construction (Mormino). So the painting continues as a dream, as this is the only way that he can bring forth his subconscious.
In another piece, he proposes “Il tempo è nell eternita” (“Time is in eternity”), the problem of the second dimension. One we claim not to know as it is buried in our psyche, the other is where we live and where we are imprisoned, vulgarly called “Time”.
Therefore, he wished to put the words on the canvass, rendering this message more evident and underlining the importance of the interior world (which is in the balance between psychology and psychoanalysis), all done with an extremely personalised technique and with suggestive and harmonic colouring (Mormino)
From 1975, the artist created new pieces, using the colour purple. The women represented are from another dimension (spectral), purple predominates; the faces are outlined in white and finished off in black. He proceeds with the colour green (another spectral colour) with the faces outlined in white and finished off with black.
In the 1980’s he was all set for new research, finding a magnificent means to express his psyche, his ‘ego’: through the mirror (representing the masked subconscious, the elderly, the clowns, – the whole world coming from reality).
From 1987 – 1988, in the vast productions of the artist, Eroticism stands out. It is a delicate theme which Chiericallo faces openly and without hypocrisy. It is a part of that long and original refection on life that distinguishes his work. Reality is there, sufferance is there, but not satisfaction. Eroticism belongs to Chiericallo because it’s a part, and far from a secondary part, of life. With little touches and non violent colours, the maestro enjoys underlining that it is a source, not only of joy but also pain.
From 1988-1989 (pieces on the inquisition), on diverse objects such as wheels, tools and little tables matched with candles and dolls.
From 1989 – 1990 Dolls placed on various objects.
From 1990 to the present, pieces done in clear colours, finished off with white.