Review
The fancy creativity of Maurizio Colasante is not new.
The artistic experience on his shoulder reveals an acquired mastery of a material that he works to his liking in order to create precious sculptures.
The classic figurative tradition is long gone, and this is not because of the artist’s aversion to it, but it is because of the artist’s personality and desire to adequate his works to the needs of the contemporary culture.
The desire of more knowledge evolves and the need of new discoveries becomes mandatory.
In this way Maurizio Colasante rushes to experiment, not copies of the past, but expressions of a progressed art and other disciplines, such as literature and music.
In order to become an established artist it is necessary to propose innovative themes from past and present: the innovations must be exhaustive in their exposition and poetic in their interpretation.
Maurizio Colasante is able to do so.
We can find some typical mankind problems in his reflection, some that include his fragile existence and some the overpowering adversities against his ideals of serenity, joy and peace.
Thus, the images of Jesus Christ’s crucifix are predominant in his works.
That Jesus Christ, through his Passion and death tied to the cross, becomes the emblem of each and one of us.
We, just like the Nazarene, are crucified to the tree of our daily suffering and tied up by painful circumstances similar to ropes that eliminate any liberty.
This is, without any doubt, the theme that Maurizio Colasante more frequently presents in his sculptures.
I personally think that he wants mankind to meditate about the reality of the crucifixion, to examine every single detail, to highlight the moments of greatest incisiveness on the martyred body, to stop and reflect on the happening, looking for its causes and effects.
Then, through this deep and long reflection, Maurizio Colasante’s sculptures acquire a raison d'être, revealing what they are representing but, especially, what they are suggesting in the context of a troubled and restless society.
A society that, although often persecuted by the tragedy of suffering, must aspire at a future victory over the evil, the same victory that the Nazarene obtained.
In this way we can and we must discover an optimistic aspect of life in Maurizio Colasante’s sculptures: all the works on this particular theme, even though they present signs of physical pain on the martyr’s face and members, never exalts desperation or loss of serenity.
This is the interpretation of the artist: even pain must be welcomed with strength of spirit.
Another theme often occurring in the artist’s works is an external reality able to make man an undeciphered number in an undeciphered crowd, a human assaulted by new technologies that make him slave of his own actions or, even worse, thinking.
Man becomes a being that is seeking self-defence from polluted environments, from machines that substitute his arms and brain, from the presence of some factors and their unpredictable consequences.
Here Maurizio Colasante’s sculptures becomes rich in spiritual values and classified as abstract.
It can’t be otherwise, examining the topics taken into consideration.
Abstractionism is not accidental and identifies itself into symbolism, thus requiring the user a more personal and interactive participation.
The artist leaves to the user the task of amplifying the ‘vision’ of the reality that is offered.
The artist suggests and develops a theme according to his understanding and interior sensitivity; the rest is left to the observer that can even go over the artist’s intendments.
In front of Colasante’s works of art we have to ask ourselves: “What is this work telling me? What message is it sending me?” rather than “What is the artist trying to say?”.
The questions will surely lead to interesting reflections and conclusions that, at first, we could have never imagined.
It is out of discussion that Maurizio Colasante’s work is of this level, thus the value of its sculptures lays in both the initial interpretation of the artist and the continuation of it by the observers using their own intelligence and creativity.
At last, the aesthetic aspect of Colasante’s sculptures cannot be underestimated.
The elegance of the forms and their movement, sometimes accentuated by the choice of a naturally elaborated material (just like some trees with their branches), are modified according to artistic needs, so that the ensemble constitutes a praise to the beauty of nature.
The effort that Maurizio Colasante has demonstrated until today is an evidence of his precious qualities as a sculptor.
The seriousness that he has always demonstrated in his profession is a warranty of the quality of his existing works and a promise of the further values that he will be able to express with future works.
Lino Lazzari