© All rights reserved 2023
REVERSIBLE WATERCOLOR®
by Giorgia Vitale
What is the reversible watercolor®?
In May 2023, the artist began experimenting with a painting style, discovering the possibility of creating within a single painting a mirrored version of the same image with an opposing meaning. This concept of reversibility applies not only to the physical orientation of the artwork but also to its interpretation.
Through this technique, the artist explores fundamental dualities of human existence: the rationality of feeling versus the irrationality of emotion; the unconscious versus the conscious; sunlight versus the shadow of night; the joy of dance versus the burden of weight; the forward movement toward adulthood versus the nostalgia for youth; joy versus sadness; the lightness of youth versus the heaviness of age.
Each painting is equipped on the back with two anchoring hooks, allowing it to be hung on either side, at the viewer's discretion. The work is also accompanied by two titles or captions—one for each orientation.
The primary goal of Art remains the dissemination of Beauty.
Those who create Beauty can express it freely, and in the visual arts, this occurs through the use of color and form.
With this in mind, I aimed to translate onto paper the idea that everything within and around the human being can be observed from multiple perspectives.
The viewer’s gaze, in fact, alters the interpretation of the painting: depending on the point of view adopted, the reading changes, revealing opposing poles and the richness of its meanings.
Purpose of the Reversible Watercolor®
To break the rules of traditional watercolor by playing with the concept of symmetry and offering the viewer the chance to be not just a passive observer of the artwork, but an active participant in the experience itself.
By enabling the painting to be physically flipped, the viewer becomes a central figure in its interpretation, transforming the piece into something dynamic and potentially in motion.
To give life to a new genre of watercolor—“conceptual-dynamic-philosophical”—capable of exploring essential themes of existence: love, the meaning of life, balance and well-being, the passage of time, lightness and heaviness, elements of psychology and sociology, as well as aspects of the natural world.
Figure
- Left "Succumbing to the world"
- Right "Dancing on the world"
- Top: "The calm after the storm"
- Bottom: "Stormy sky"
- Top: "Seascape, clear spring sky"
- Bottom: "Seascape, leaden sky"
- Top: “Grasping onto wisdom. The child dreams of becoming an adult”
- Bottom: “The adult clings onto the nostalgia of youth"
- Left: “The dominance of reason over feelings”
- Right: “The dominance of feelings over reason”
- Left: “The conscious. Shades of emerald green”
- Right: “The subconscious. Shades of emerald green”
- Top: “Sunbeams. 11:00 a.m.”
- Bottom: “Reflections of moonlight. 11:00 p.m.”
- Left: “The Dawn of a Love"
- Right: “The Sunset of a Love"
- Left: “Tears of joy”
- Right: “Tears of pain”
Dualism in the Art.
The reversible watercolors by Giorgia Vitale (2023)Is it possible to create in just one painting its own reflection with the opposite meaning?
The technical expertise of Giorgia Vitale has achieved just that. There is a captivating duality in the works of Giorgia Vitale: reversible watercolours express, almost by magic, different contents and opposing and contrasting messages. Therefore, a dreamlike dimension pervades the works of this artist, musician, poetess, painter and sublime pianist. The music, with its perfect harmony, confers on her works the rhythmic balance of a musical score (right/left; high/low), a rhythmic balance that is both functional and confers a perfect harmony on the whole. Moreover, the uniqueness of the elegant and composite technique of the watercolourist is supported by a marked sensitivity and richness of content and themes, in particular, including against a social background, which contribute to the work, showcasing a particular magnificence and distinctiveness in the intentions of the artist and their concrete achievement. The peculiarity of Vitale’s watercolour can be seen in the fact that, by reversing the vision a hundred and eighty degrees, the contents, and thus also the messages, turn out to become opposites. This is, in a painting that tackles the difficult technique of watercolour (nearly impossible to correct), a complex process: beginning from the painter’s mind, her marked sensitivity and personal culture, achieving happy outcomes, bright and full of deep messages with contents and messages themselves reversible.
M. T. Prestigiacomo (Art critic)
© All rights reserved 2023