Afro

Tapestries and graphic works - 1975

AAt the beginning of 1975 Afro began to devote himself to small tempera on paper to use as blueprints for a series of aquatints which he had thought of composing in a book once he found the right text. These works were born with extreme happiness, they lived very well together. At this point it became important to find a text that linked them. The search wasn't easy; these projects clearly maintained the heraldic tone that had characterized Afro's pictorial production in the last year.

The research was therefore oriented towards the Italian and French poems of chivalry, but there was always something that did not accord with Afro, with his poetics and his person. Continuing to read and discuss, jumping from one century to another, from one country to another, the choice stopped on Baudelaire because, despite not having a specific connection with these last works, he was the poet closest to the painting of Afro view across the span of the  its production. A classic painting in which, as Afro himself says, the out of tune is inserted, the violent contrast that serves to stamp, to tune, thanks to this out of tune note, the whole of the work.

These engravings are not presented as in a book, intended as an object tied together, but composed with the texts that came closest to the single engraving, in some cases making a kind of story when, as in the case of " Invitation au Voyage“, The poem was divided into three parts. As Afro worked in these tempera paints he thought that some subjects could be translated instead of graphics, such as tapestries. As early as 1972 he had provided his own sketches which were used in this regard.

The contemporary origin of these works has suggested presenting together this series of ten engravings and eight tapestries; of the latter, only four are part of the 1975 projects.