Matteo Massagrande (1959) - Natura Morta

AUTHOR

Matteo Massagrande (1959) is an Italian painter and engraver. Born in Padua in 1959 and today active between his hometown and Hajós in Hungary, he is considered one of the most authoritative masters of contemporary realism on an international level. Although he is renowned for his silent interiors and abandoned villas where light is the absolute protagonist, his still life research constitutes a fundamental pillar of his poetics, tackled with the same poetic restraint as his grande architectures. In these works, everyday objects such as carafes, vases, or fruit are not mere exercises in style, but become "portraits of matter" investigated with a meticulousness rooted in his deep knowledge of ancient techniques, engraving, and restoration. Through a skilful use of chromatic stratification, Massagrande transforms still life into a meditation on time and permanence, elevating microscopic detail to a metaphysical and suspended dimension.

His long career, which began early in the seventies and enriched by intellectual exchanges with figures such as Ermanno Olmi, Riccardo Licata, and Giacomo Guidi, has led him to exhibit in over a hundred solo shows across Europe, Asia, and the United States. His more recent still lifes, protagonists of important exhibitions between 2024 and 2025 in London and Varese, confirm his ability to render the spiritual density of the everyday through painting that is at once pure technique and poetic vision. With works present in prestigious permanent collections, including the Gabinetto delle Stampe degli Uffizi, Massagrande confirms himself as an artist capable of dialoguing with the great tradition of the past to tell the silent resonances of contemporary reality.

DESCRIPTION

"Autumn Still Life", oil on canvas, 66x33 cm — the only canvas, 1980s, signed at the top left and bottom.

Inside a glass vessel with a barely suggested profile, a delicate autumn-toned still life unfolds.

The construction of the work rests on a rigorous play of chiaroscuro contrasts, where the subjects seem to emerge from a neutral background with bold brushstrokes and color stratifications that give the painting notable plastic density; the colors, saturated and earthy, do not seek transparency but solidity, making tangible the rough texture of the peels and the vitality of the earth still present on the fruits. This chromatic game, played on a warm color range, creates a dramatic painterly and gestural impact.

The painting chronologically belongs to the period of the artist’s first maturity, a phase in which Massagrande consolidates his link with contemporary realism through a language still distant from the diaphanous atmospheres and transparencies that will mark his production from the late 1990s onward. In the phase to which the painting belongs, the artist indeed favors a denser and more material rendering, where the eye lingers on the physical concreteness of reality before arriving at the metaphysical and silent dimension typical of his famous abandoned interiors. The work thus occupies a fundamental pillar of his poetics, testifying how the study of still life has been for Massagrande the necessary laboratory. A painting of fine execution and great tactile impact.

CONDITION REPORT

Excellent overall condition. The work is intact in every part with vivid and legible color and brushwork. The frame is offered as a courtesy.

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