Search

Bosco di Fresco

Male

Born in: Munich (Germany) on 9 July 1950.

Currently living: Villmar (Germany).

Activity:

"I want to make the ugly lovable"

The painter Bosco di Fresco mostly devotes himself to subjects from the field of education. In his often expressionist paintings, there are figures from Greek mythology, such as the Old Testament or poetry.

A clear demarcation between being an artist and his working life as an engineer and lecturer in graphic process engineering was so important to him, that he adopted the stage name Bosco di Fresco twenty years ago. Under this pseudonym he is well networked with mutually interested artists from the international painters' guild. The 70-year-old recently received his accolade with a solo exhibition in the Rosenhang Museum, Germany.

“I've been working in the sense of pictures my whole life,” explains the native of Munich. But before he took up the brush, the printing trade was his profession. Bosco di Fresco was already interested in technology when he was still at school, and so he improved his pocket money with assistant jobs in a local printer. After completing his studies, he went to a publishing house for photo wallpapers and was significantly involved in the technical development of a printing process that allowed him to put large-format color pictures on the wall. For the compilation of the collection, the engineer's artistic sense and sense of space were also required. “It goes without saying that not every motif is equally suitable for wall design,” he explains.

The painting of Bosco di Fresco also began with pleasing nature and landscape pictures in acrylic. “There I found my balance to cope with stress and workload,” he looks back. In the meantime, he had switched to an international publishing house with a focus on illustrated books and art calendars as a development engineer and subsequently started his own business as a consultant. “With clients all over Germany, I needed a central place of residence. That's how I ended up in Villmar, ”he says.

Bosco di Fresco discovered the way to his own expressionist painting style in 1984 through contact with the painter Evylin van der Wielen, whom he had represented as a gallery owner and with whom a close friendship developed.

“There is so much freshness and joie de vivre in Evylin's pictures. That excited me. And as an engineer, I couldn't help but get to the bottom of the matter, ”says the artist with a smile. So he developed his own style in the striking combination of ugliness and cheerfulness. "If you want to distinguish yourself in art, you have to stand out from the crowd and create something special."

For his paintings, Bosco di Fresco prefers to use highly concentrated pigment colors based on oil, dammar resins or turpentine made from pine tree extracts, because these particularly slow-drying media offer him a wide range of design options. That goes up to the elaboration of three-dimensional structures. "I find it really exciting to see how colors change and network over time," he explains. This drying-related process can last for weeks or even months. The artist also sets special accents in his work with gold and silver leaf.

"I like to pick up stories with my pictures, e.g. from antiquity, ”says Bosco di Fresco. So he found his very own thing in the combination of education and painting. Looking at Homer's Odysseus, he points out: “What the ancient Greek philosophers wrote down is still valid.” For example, he has the episode about Penelope, the faithfully waiting wife of Odysseus, and her never-ending knitting based on a modern painting carried over to the present day.

The same applies to the Old Testament motif of Susanna in the bath, who is slanderously accused of adultery, and whose trial is groundbreaking for the jurisprudence because here the witnesses were questioned independently for the first time. “If the viewer knows the story, he gets a different approach to the picture,” says the painter.

Also in the portraits created by Bosco di Fresco, e.g. reflect something of the background of these people. “I paint every picture using the technique it deserves,” says the painter. For example, he placed the poet prince on a black background and designed his clothes with silver leaf. The colors and finishes of the knitting Penelope, on the other hand, indicate her royal status.

In his art, Bosco di Fresco is not concerned with what is generally perceived as beauty. "Rather, I would like to work out the ugly and, by playing with contrasting colors, design it so that it still appears endearing to the viewer."

On the artist's easel, the image of a junk vehicle is emerging as a symbol de On the artist's easel, the image of a junk vehicle is emerging as a symbol of transience. He uses it to demonstrate how he smears and meshes the layers of paint with a spatula, brush or bare hand. "Before I finally like the work, a lot will change here," says Bosco of Fresco.

Keep you updated on Yicca's opportunities and new contests