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The Magical Realism of Tino Stefanoni
- Stefanini Arte
- Sep 14
- 3 min read
Tino Stefanoni, born in 1937, was a leading figure in the history of post-war Italian art.
His first solo exhibition was held in 1968 at the historic Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, featuring an introductory essay by Pierre Restany. Since then, his works have been displayed in numerous national and international galleries, museums, and public spaces.
Although his work did not strictly belong to the realm of Conceptual Art, it always evolved within the same area of research. Many of his paintings feature all the elements of a suggestive romantic landscape—the nocturne, the small tree, the wall of a solitary house—yet everything is pushed to such an extreme that it achieves the opposite effect of romantic emotion: the appearance of things is allowed to settle, with a detachment subtly veiled in irony.
Da lontano il disegno sembra netto, ma, se guardi con più attenzione, ti accorgi che non vi è nulla di assolutamente rettilineo: nessun palo o remo o muro ha spigoli che non siano tormentati da un ondeggiamento minimo ma nettamente percepibile, da un’insicurezza voluta, ricercata, finta, anch’essa quindi illusoria. Tu credi di vedere l’oggetto, vuoi vederlo ma ti viene impedito, l’illusione viene creata e insieme smentita, negata.
Marina De Stasio, L’illusione Svelata, 1996
Tino Stefanoni, "Faro notturno I", serigrafia a colori, cm 50x140; tir.150 esemplari
Art as Research
The Enchanted Disenchantment, Painting as Object, The State of Things, Objective Irony, The Unveiled Illusion, Platonic Loves, Emoticon, Metaphysics of the Everyday, Irony, Poetry, and So Be It, Magical Conceptuality, The Enigma of the Obvious, and Painting of the Mind are some of the meaningful titles of texts written about his work.
Between 1976 and 1983, using a magnifying glass, Stefanoni created a series of paintings and lithographic works resembling pages from a diary-like book where images replaced words. He called them lists: “List of things 1, 2, 3…”.
For Stefanoni, painting is a means, not an end, and the same holds true for the objects in his figuration: they are tools for research, not the purpose of the research itself. Each work is a culmination of the artist's effort and, at the same time, a starting point for thought.
Solo un poeta autentico riesce a raggiungere – con un tratto minimalista e una tavolozza altrettanto essenziale – una intensità visiva così liricamente pregnante. Ho incontrato Tino più di 40 anni fa, queste due qualità prevalgono tuttora nel suo lavoro.
Arturo Schwarz - Stefanoni. Catalogo ragionato delle opere, 2017
Tino Stefanoni, "Casolare a sera", serigrafia a colori, cm 50x140 - tir.150 esemplari
Beginning in 1984, Stefanoni produced his Untitled works. The landscapes or still lifes that would characterize his work from then on maintain the same metaphysical distance from reality as his other pieces. They do not aim to explain but to represent a state of things.
During the same period, the artist continued his analytical research using graphic techniques, including silkscreen printing. In an interview, he stated that his work is colored painting, not painted: it lacks pictorialism and atmosphere; vibrations and subtleties are excluded, with only clarity and brilliance remaining.
An Enduring Legacy of Irony and Simplicity
Tino Stefanoni passed away in Lecco on December 2, 2017. He always looked at the world of everyday objects and things, presenting them in their most disarming obviousness, like the plates of a visual primer or the pages of an instruction manual where images replace words.
Nulla di straordinario in due case di campagna e in un covone di fieno; nulla di inusuale in un campanile in competizione con la cima di un platano! Certo, i campanili ci sono ancora, i covoni anche, eppure davanti alle sue piccole tele, ti pare di scoprirli ora e che la memoria li avesse perduti nel buio delle cose abbandonate.
Giorgio Cortenova, Quando la neve cadeva ancora, 2003
