Critical essays

Cosmic dialogues – by the magazine “Effetto Arte” Quarterly magazine of art and culture directed by Paolo Levi, year 6- # 2-APRIL-June 2016

The abstract expressionism in which Antonio Corbo lands, far from being the result of a mechanical causality, accurately describes the emotional waves of his unconscious, whose chaotic motion is dominated by an extremely complex and rich impact, artistic and aesthetic.

Corbo paints since the ’60, venturing with different forms of expression: from the figurative, focused on social issues, to the informal in order to describe the birth of the universe and the different forms of life.

The choice of this expressive language aims to go to the source of things to grasp their vital core, their true essence. His paintings now seem to draw a parallel between the cosmos and the inner enclosed in his soul: each color marks the gradual taking of intimate form of visions-in a relentless succession of signs charged with expressive force- and of meanings that seem stolen to dreamland.

The color describes the intricate mazes, as in Nucleo, or glare, sagging and subtle nuances, as in Cosmic Activity 2, which pervade the work area to liven up the composition.

In any case, the movement is central in Antonio Corbo’s work: each painting is animated by energy flows that reveal the patient meticulousness of the painter, but especially his tireless search for visual balance, and finally the ability to give the compositional weaving a joyous sense of freedom.

Thus the whole beauty of the architecture of signs emerges, well-premeditated, which organizes the pictorial space in a plot that exceeds its formal ties to become the revelation of a dream reported by signs, colors, and precious counterpoint of light and shadow.

Colors and signs produce ferments and rhythmic variations that, weaving, describe the unusual union between painting and poetry that has always inhabited the artist’s work.

Sandro Serradifalco