LETTERA | LUCA BERTOLO

Luca Bertolo (Milan, 1968) employs painting and writing in his practice, in a combination of intersecting and non-dominant levels of interpretation and vision. Representation through color and mark-making provides an immediate and instinctual access point, allowing for deeper vision and reflection.

Lettera (2019) is an apparently simple medium-sized painting with a gray background, yet this deliberate deception conceals layers of form and meaning. The subtle blue grid, with its barely hinted lines, evokes the classical grid paper from elementary school notebooks.
Just like a habit learned since childhood, Bertolo uses this large painted sheet as a basis for a writing exercise, a letter, indeed.
The text is mainly legible – albeit written in a very faint pastel yellow – but its content does not seem particularly articulated: in fact, it is possible to read “Cara” (Dear) as the first word, followed by a long series of “bla bla bla,” concluding with a simple “Ti amo” (I love you). Is it a reproduction of an old letter with paper bearing the signs of time and ink sometimes barely readable?
Or perhaps it’s a way of saying that any words in the content would have been insignificant and equally banal; there are no right or true words in a love letter. But with this choice of omission, the artist might also have wanted to focus attention only on the most important part of the letter, namely the affection felt towards the addressee, which is not concluded or exhausted in a single gesture.

Another central element for guiding the gaze and reading is provided by some filled squares, completely colored. Similar to damaged pixels or ‘obscured’ elements, the squares measure about 4 cm on each side and do not follow a precise order but are scattered randomly. Yellows, pinks, blues, greens, browns, and grays, the palette features pastel shades that make the whole pleasant and harmonious, although they give the work a timidly subdued character.
Lettera is a work that seems to challenge the viewer to discover all its hidden meanings.

Luca Bertolo
Lettera, 2019
Oil on canvas, 80 x 70 cm
Photo by Camilla Maria Santini, courtesy the artist and SpazioA, Pistoia

07/02/2024