. Zago and the Neo-Informal-Materico
Gianantonio Marino Zago doesnt want to be labelled nor pigeonholed; he is a multifaceted artist, versatile, deeply affected by the art of the second half of the XX century to which he belongs for birth but not for training or education.
He learnt on the road, gathering with other maudits artists like himself, among the many there was Mario Schifano. Zago has well absorbed Schifanos and Rauschenbeurgs styles and hes been deeply influenced by those, even if unconsciously.
Its impossible not to think of Warhol or Manzoni; a shade of our dear old 1900 is in the imagination of this artist who didnt study History of Art but he quotes it through his sensations and emotions. Hes completely subjugated to a passion for strong colours, a full red or a vivid blue which he makes sliding on the canvas like the Jackson Pollock dripping. And then, we dont have to forget about Burri with his bags and his combustions, nor Fontana with his neat lines; Zago is all this, and even more. He is ceaselessly in the process of researching even when he goes around collecting wastes, such as coke tins, syringes, condoms, smashed rackets, old shoes, lighters, cigarette butts, food remnants; I figure Zago in my head Daniel Spoerri in action, his infinite ideas which will inexorably turn rubbish into true Art; always with a whip of irony. What makes of an artist a real artist is irony, not taking oneself too seriously, the challenge, an open mind and high intellingence make the rest. And then the magic is done: a master piece is born as from a manufacturer demiurge God, a sort of protective numen living in every artist.
Art is the expression of ones real inner self, its the language reflecting the spirit of the artists time, its to communicate a message and to abandon provincialism. This is the only way to create the greatest Art, otherwise it is only an amateur work.
