COPIA DEL FANCIULLO CON CANESTRA DI FRUTTA DI CARAVAGGIO (1995) Painting by Maurizio Castagna

FROM FIGURATIVE TO ABSTRACT
Maurizio Castagna was born in Piazza Armerina on 01/01/1961 and it was his father, a painter and decorator, who passed on his love for art to him. In 1980 he moved to Piedmont (Asti) where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin first and then the faculty of law. In Asti he met Professor Armando Buico who immediately recognized Castagna's talent and invited him to enroll in the Promoter of Fine Arts of Asti. From 1984 to the present day he has prepared personal exhibitions and also participates in collective exhibitions in the galleries of: La Clessidra (Asti), La Tavolozza (Turin), at the Chamber of Commerce of Alessandria and then in Bologna, Milan, Florence, Taormina, Catania, Caltagirone, Palermo, Piazza Armerina, Berlin, Dubai, Manhattan, Shanghai etc. In 1993 he was commissioned some works by the Episcopal Curia of Asti, a large canvas depicting the stoning of Saint Stephen placed behind the main altar of the church of the Stefanine nuns of Asti and the portrait of the bishop of Asti H.E. Mons. Sibilla canvas located in the bishops' hall of the Episcopal Curia of Asti. A few years later, the curia of Caltanissetta and Catania asked Castagna to create the portraits of H.E. respectively. Monsignor. Garsia, canvas exhibited in the bishops' hall of the curia of Caltanissetta and of H.E. Monsignor Bommarito, canvas placed in the S. Agata room of the Catania seminary. At the beginning his painting was strongly linked to the Italian figurative tradition: and to the coloring of Sicilian painters such as Francesco Lojacono, Guttuso, Fiume, studying and deepening the technique of the Flemish painters, of Evaristo Baschenis and above all of Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, of which makes many copies on commission. During this period, even if satisfied by the success of the public and sales, he felt the need to go beyond the figurative and thus began the Metaphysical and Surrealist period by studying and deepening the techniques of the great masters such as De Chirico, Dalì, Magritte, Carra and Morandi and from 1996 to 2010 he created a series of exhibitions dedicated to the painting of silence:
This period is also full of satisfactions, however the need for new discoveries soon takes over, leading him to approach abstractionism. The painters who fascinate him most are Birolli, Severini, Montanarini, Libio, Mark Rothko, Willem De Kooning and Jackson Pollock.
Castagna, already master of the color which he uses with self-assurance, composes with wisdom and mastery, in classical harmony, lights and shadows to obtain symphonies and scents of poetry; portraitist with great intuition in grasping and rendering human characters; Maurizio Castagna who, despite being very modern, knows how to create like few others that immediate current of sympathy between the intelligent observer and his work.

• Nationality: ITALY
• Date of birth : 1961
• Artistic domains: Works by artists with a certified artist value,
• Groups: Certified Artists Contemporary Italian Artists