The German private collector, Carl Großhaus, owns over two hundred works by Ernesto Tatafiore. This exhibition displays about one hundred paintings, sculptures, objects, graphics and art-books from the last two decades.
Ernesto Tatafiore, who lives in Naples, shows his work for the first time in Hungary. His exhibition presents his peculiar world with its Mediterranean atmosphere which is closely linked with nearly three thousand years of Neapolitan (or in a wider sense, European) history and culture. His main motifs are the volcano, the sea and the creatures living in it, the boat, the dark-haired woman. Maximilien Robespierre, Mozart, the race car and the airplane. These elements, beyond themselves, are complex symbols for basic concepts: the homeland, the past, ideals and death. His figures are presented sometimes with respect, sometimes with criticism, sometimes with mockery, but always with a great deal of warmth.
"Ernesto Tatafiore is a doctor and psychoanalyst; his wife, Simonetta, works as a child psychologist and she translates important American psychoanalytical works. Tatafiore draws wonderfully, but he does not like to hear this because he does not want his name connected with certain techniques and means of expression." Jean-Christophe Ammann
Tatafiore works with various but basically traditional techniques. Hi use of different techniques within one work is very exciting: he adds different objects to the canvas that protrude into the space, he put the frame on feet, he makes unusual combinations of materials. In spite of the complex techniques, his rendering is very simple. He works with only a few vivid, pure colors. But owing to their simplicity, his works are very expressive. Under the surface there are newer and newer layers of meaning. His humorous and disturbing compositions speak about the vivaciousness of the past and the beauty of life.
