With this original work, Mauro Masetti ventures into figurative painting in a new and unexpected direction. His brush captures the outcome of a dreamlike intuition: a humanoid creature whose ambiguous appearance seems to embody the contradictions of our time.

Turquoise and orange dominate the canvas, creating a striking chromatic contrast and a sense of disorientation. Amidst marks and translucent layers of paint, touches of black seem to scratch at the pictorial surface, heightening the subject’s bewilderment. The figure’s expression is perplexed and unsettled. Echoes of Modigliani are evident not only in the elongated neck but also in the figure’s pale, vacant eyes, which stand out against the turquoise face, seemingly devoid of any fixed point of focus. The black hair is rendered through a textured, broken brushstroke. It is enlivened by blue highlights that animate it and accentuate the color contrast with the face.

Masetti’s art serves both as a barometer of the inner self and as a litmus test of the world around us. Nothing human is alien to it, echoing Terence’s celebrated words: “I am human, and I consider nothing human foreign to me.” His lucid dreamlike vision captures the present through a meditation that, while clear-eyed and free from embellishment, is never cynical or resigned.

Here, the choice of figurative language lends itself to a portrait painted in vivid, complementary hues: a visual exploration of contemporary humanity’s uncertainty when confronted with questions too great to grasp, giving rise to bewilderment and paralysis. Reality is portrayed in all its complexity, acknowledging its difficulties while seeking to discern its positive aspects as well. The result is a dialogue between light and shadow, which gives the work its title. Yet the subject’s slanting mouth, defined by a sharp stroke of red, betrays an underlying tension, revealing an unease that remains unresolved.

Angela Patrono