Agostino Arrivabene
“I enhance what is urgent inside me. Sometimes I translate what my essence demands into dim atmospheres. I raise universal human values to images, or symbols, or, even better, archetypes that transfigure reality through a language bound to ancient mysteries, such as the Eleusinian Mysteries…”
Agostino Arrivabene was born at Rivolta d’Adda, near Cremona, Italy on June 11, 1967. After graduating in 1991 at the Brera Art Academy in 1991, he focused on painting, drawing and etching. From the outset his attention was drawn to the Ancient Masters, Leonardo, Dürer and van Eyck above all else, leading him to travel extensively in Europe’s museums to gain a first hand view of their masterpieces of which he often made faithful reproductions.
This research allowed him to revitalise and apply forgotten painting techniques (above all egg tempera), to utilise neglected materials and to prepare colours according to traditional methods (from lapis lazuli, cinnabar, pure indigo, madder, bistre, dragon’s blood, orpiment and from other materials). At the same time he also focuses on drawing and etching techniques.
…my visionary vein stems from a mystical research: in my experience visions have always a mystical background, they are a strong communication line with the eternal, the mysterious and the infinity above us. As a man, I prefer to think of myself as a shaman, who throws prophecies to the world, who discloses messages and images concealing higher and wider meanings. At first these can be quite obscure even to myself, but as time goes by or through the sequence of works to come, they show their meaning. Reality is certainly an important source of inspiration, because I think it remits to a ultra-reality hidden underneath appearances.