Franca Batich

The title of Franca Batich's new exhibit, which is being presented until 15 November at the Giudecca 795 Art Gallery and in the Marco Polo Airport's VIP lounge, is suggestive -- "Presences and Perspectives on the Thread of the Imaginary". Batich expresses her inner world, representing what might be called a geometry of the soul and metaphysical sceneries. On one side, her abstract naturalism goes towards the contemplation of infinity and, on the other, she observes the secrets of a permanent mise en scene of theatres populated with masks -- not those of Commedia dell'Arte but something much more modern and sometimes difficult to conceive: like shapes balancing in the void. Born in 1940, her artistic career started at a very young age as a student of Giovanni Giordani, Frida de Reya, and Alice Psaconopulo. Beginning with her first exhibits during her university years in the 'sixties, she has been very active in the cultural life of her native city, Trieste. After taking part in several collective shows in Italy and abroad (including New York, Austria, and Germany), she has, since 1993,devoted herself to the development of formal and existential content, the common thread that is the basis of her artistic search. She represents the capture of a moment in space and time that is projected in an abstract dimension. With wide brushstrokes and dense colour, she creates unreal places and uses both bright and more sober shades to, depending on their density, reproduce movement or fixed contemplation. In this special world, the artist has recently introduced "theatres" -- scenes populated by "emancipated puppets" assembled in chaotic balance whose strings maintain their geometric autonomy. According to art critic Marianna Accerboni, Batich is "one of the most important artists in the second half of the Twentieth Century in Trieste, as she was able to interpret an epoch's drive, problems, and emotions with delicate intensity, an unexceptionable technique and refined originality." Barbara Romani has written that "Her abstract naturalism does not aim to represent the outer world but only the inner world, through shapes, lines and colours. The big spaces thick with colour are crossed by intersecting lines, leading to a focal point which stands beyond the canvas, elsewhere. These thin threads get lost in the distance, but at the same time they are able to reproduce the feeling of the horizon." The book "Franca Batich, Inseguendo il Vento" (Chasing the Wind, 2008) gathers critical texts and images from her main solo shows since 1993.