Pino

The dramatic paintings of Giuseppe (Pino) Dangelico are not as spontaneous as they might at first appear. It is, in fact, the duplicity of fresh, spirited brushwork and rich dense tones of color with carefully articulated pictorial values that distinguish Pino’s images today.

With a full range of figural subjects from the youthful openness of children to the sensual innocence of young women and unvarnished records of life’s penetrating experience etched in the faces of old men, Pino explores the act of painting in the process of uncovering the reality of form.

Pino’s unique vision was born in formal training, disciplined by professional illustration and set free with the experimentation that has always marked advances in the history of painting. It is a vision that can reconcile geometric patterns of an informal interior space with the organic shapes of human forms; a vision that can press the picture plane with frank subjects that engage the viewer directly while others recede and turn shyly away.

A master of representational, impressionistic bravura painting, Pino attacks the canvas with an energy and confidence that recalls earlier work by Anders Zorn (1860-1920), Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923) and, or course John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). A consummate technician, Pino has the ability to capture both form and light with a few lightning strokes, transforming everyday life into romantic moods filled with verve, vitality and mystery.

Born on the cusp of a defining world war in Europe, Pino Dangelico’s childhood visual memories are those of women left behind to keep the home fires burning. His mother, aunts, grandmothers and cousins became a universe of attractive Italian women in aprons, maintaining domestic tranquility in very uncertain times. Bathed in the Adriatic light of his native Bari, these figures would later infuse the romantic canvases of Pino that speak so softly to the hearts of Europeans and Americans alike today.