David Finkbeiner



For the past twenty years David Finkbeiner has paid regular visits to Tuscany. He has been captivated by this land, with its cultural background and natural beauty, both as an artist, in fact he now works almost only here, and as a man, in fact recently he has been spending more and more time here. His farm house in Tempagnano, where he has his study and where he gives life to his work, has been restored by the artist with more than rare taste. Although his paintings reproduce the natural environment, Finkbeiner never works en plein air, because it is in his study that the emotions aroused by the natural beauty can be re-experienced with calm, the emotional impact can be filtered and reproposed with the typical Anglo-Saxon phlegm, freeing Nature from its dramatic fury (found in Turner) and endowing it with more intimate and cultured tones.

As in Wordsworth, for Finkbeiner emotion must be recollected in tranquillity, contemplated until, as a kind of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears and is replaced by an emotion similar to the one experienced when in direct contact with Nature, when emotions are strong and uncontrollable. The artist is attracted by the innocence and simplicity which belong to the world of Nature, and in his work the overflowing powerful feelings are constantly filtered by thought and craftsmanship.

Finkbeiner’s most recent series of paintings was characterised by the mysterious fascination of abandoned ruins, interiors of houses, barns, churches, all seen through a window the purpose of which was to create a subjective and cultural filter capable of filling the matter with humanity, and allowing the abandoned space and the lonely Nature to vibrate, haunted by secret looks.

The present collection is characterised by framed landscapes where the frameworks hint at architectural elements from the fourteen and fifteen hundreds and serve as a link between past and present. The connection between space and time gives life to intense atmospheres. The format chosen is always the same and so are the basic techniques employed. Even if the subjects and objects of his paintings change from one series to another, they are nevertheless always linked to Nature and the way man perceives and interprets it. Though unconsciously while he is working, Finkbeiner is strongly influenced by the places surrounding him: he creates landscapes of the heart.

The use of opaque water-colours, gouache, on mylar plus pastels on paper allows the artist to move the colour, spreading it quickly on the sheet, without preparatory sketches, thus giving a sense of dynamism and freshness. In some cases several layers of colour one on top of the other, lumps of dense colour, superimposition of mylar sheets give more density to the work. Glittering yellows, intense or bright greens, gleaming light blues, light or dark pinks, are some of the colours which communicate changing moods, going from peacefulness, as happens in In equilibrio, to movement, as in In salita; there are psychological situations, Senza fine, or descriptive ones, Dal terrazzo; sometimes there is a lingering between known and unknown, Nebbiosa, or a symbolic hint, Federico II; there are also very personal moments, Luce del fabbro, explicit historical references, Val di Trecento “omaggio ad Ambrogio Lorenzetti”, or stylistic hints to the past as in Da Giotto. Finkbeiner’s work is the result of inner strength, we immediately perceive that the vibration of the colours springs from an inner impulse, from a personal conception of the world, where Nature spontaneously mingles with culture.

The strength through which the landscapes are re-created derives from true and deep feelings, from the ability to be in tune with the matter and to relate it to life.



From: R. Cresti, David Finkbeiner, Galleria Bacci di Capaci, Lucca 2000



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