THE ART OF THE PAINTER AND ORNATIST CARLO BASILICO 1895 1966

Carlo Basilico was an ornatist by profession and a painter in private. His painting, of an intimate and personal nature, is distinguished by colourism that is not Lombard but French, and is a kind of diary of the soul loaded with all his emotions and notes of the journey that is life and that he kept to himself. What is striking about his painting is not only his unusual palette from the 1920s, but also the expressiveness of sign and colour that, in the 1930s, have an intrinsic strength and energy that transforms them into structure. In short, it is a question of how Basilico uses the paintbrush, the colour-sign that creates strength and dynamics in the construction of his paintings, what is very unusual compared to those years. In the Ticino art scene of those years, Basilico stands out like few others for the freshness and modernity of his painting. A free, living, empathic painting that conveys a feeling of participation and direct involvement to the observer.