from "ARTE AL LIMITE" (Santiago de Chile)

Luigi Rocca:
Tras la búsqueda del sueño americano
El hiperrealista pintor italiano admira la esencia solitaria de Estados Unidos reflejada muy bien en  los pintores Edward Hopper y Chuck Close. También a escritores como Jack Kerouac y Tennessee Williams.
Sus vistas aéreas, retratos y pinturas de comedores reflejan a un artista inquieto que trabaja con fotografías y adora la tranquilidad de su atelier en Venecia.
Tomás Vio, Periodista

El trabajo de Luigi Rocca (1952) sorprende.
Su hiperrealismo parece captar olores, sensaciones, momentos especiales, casi mejor que una fotografía documental. Imágenes de Times Square, un Dining Room semi abandonado o una calle en una ciudad perdida de Estados Unidos, con todas sus pequeñeces y grandezas. Ha expuesto en las grandes ciudades de todo el mundo, siempre dejando algo de él en cada una de sus obras. El artista conversó con Arte al Límite sobre su trabajo, su temprano comienzo en el mundo del arte y su afición por la cultura norteamericana, que lo ha llevado a decorar su atelier en Venecia con muebles y objetos que día a día lo trasladan a la esencia profunda del Estados Unidos urbano, callejero y desconocido.

Has estado pintando desde los 13 años y exhibiendo tus obras desde 1969. ¿Cómo te diste cuenta que la pintura era lo que debías hacer en la vida? ¿Fue algo que llegó fácil o fue difícil decidirlo como un sistema de vida?
- Yo era muy joven para tomar una decisión, pero todo lo que podía ver era arte. Era mi hobby como niño y nada me daba las mismas sensaciones. Me siento muy afortunado porque mis padres entendieron que arte era el camino para convertirme en pintor. Al mismo tiempo fue una decisión fácil y difícil. Fácil porque era todo lo que quería hacer. Difícil porque no era un trabajo seguro. Tuve que estudiar, practicar y trabajar mucho. Pero soy una persona obstinada y cuando quiero algo, trabajo duro hasta que lo consigo.

Como pintor hiperrealista, ¿es la realidad la que viaja siempre a través de sus ojos? ¿La saca desde fotos, recuerdos visuales? ¿Cómo una calle de Nueva York o un puente en Venecia parecen tan reales como fotografías?
- Al principio fui pintor realista. Luego me fui a los EE.UU. y descubrí a Edward Hopper, Richard Estes, Malcolm Morley y Chuck Close, y comprendí que mi camino era la representación de la realidad en cada detalle, como ellos. Tengo un gran archivo fotográfico con imágenes tomadas por mí, sacadas de libros y revistas, y enviadas por familiares, amigos y fans, que conocen los paisajes y puntos de vista que me encantan. Comienzo a trabajar de una fotografía -o más de una- y la "copio" en el lienzo con un lápiz y colores acrílicos. Yo pinto en mi taller, solo, y mando mis originales a todo el mundo. Creo que la realidad se expresa sobre el lienzo a través de los colores, la perspectiva, la precisión y tal vez algo de mí mismo dentro de la pintura: mi tiempo, mi energía, mi pasión.

En su trabajo casi se puede oler el aire, escuchar el sonido de la calles o percibir el vacío de una sala de restaurante. ¿Cómo consigue ese efecto?
- En primer lugar, quiero decir que el efecto del que hablas es exactamente lo que yo quiero darle a la pintura. No estoy seguro acerca de cómo obtenerlo, sólo puedo decir que mientras hago la obra me siento dentro del escenario.  Siento la confusión y la energía de Times Square en el día, siento los poderes mágicos de Times Square por la noche, me siento flojo mientras almuerzo en un restaurante en la mañana del domingo. Tal vez soy capaz de transmitir los sentimientos reales a la pintura, porque sé cómo se siente estar en ese lugar.

Su imaginario se ha comparado con la obra de escritores increíbles tales como Jack Kerouac y Tennessee Williams, como símbolo de una nostálgica América. ¿Se siente cómodo con eso? ¿Qué opina sobre Estados Unidos: admiración, dolor o sólo una parte de las imágenes de su trabajo que le ayudan a llegar al hiperrealismo?
- Cuando era un adolescente leí la obra maestra de Kerouac "En el camino".  En ella habló sobre Estados Unidos, la magia, el viaje. Estos temas son fundamentales para una mente joven con ganas de crear. Por otro lado, he descubierto a Williams un poco más tarde y he leído todo lo que escribió. Me siento contento cuando la gente compara mi arte con el de ellos. Definitivamente tengo una fuerte conexión con Estados Unidos. Admiro mucho ese país, me encanta lo que representa para mi generación, el “Sueño Americano". Algún día me gustaría poder montar una Harley en la legendaria Ruta 66. Mi taller, en un monasterio veneciano antiguo, está decorado con objetos típicos de Estados Unidos: una América recreada en Venecia para mí mismo. Estados Unidos es simplemente un mito, nada menos.

¿Está usted preparando una exposición pronto? ¿Puede hablar de futuros trabajos o exposiciones? ¿Dónde está viviendo actualmente?
- Hice una exposición individual en Alemania finales del año pasado. Mis exposiciones individuales en el futuro deberían realizarse en Italia y en Nueva York, aún las estamos planeando. Yo vivo en Italia, en Venecia, la cuna del arte, una increíble ciudad única que protege y me envuelve en su fantástica atmósfera y me deja trabajar con serenidad.

Paisajes, comedores, retratos. ¿Dónde se siente más cómodo en la pintura?  
- Cada cuadro es diferente de los demás. Todos los temas que pinto -paisajes, vistas aéreas, comedores, retratos– entregan algo de mi. Puede ser un recuerdo, una emoción, la sensación de velocidad y movimiento. Sí, hay una parte de mí en cualquiera de ellos.

"New York Visions"

LUIGI ROCCA: New York Visions
Galerie Mensing, Munich. 4–11 November 2006
That New York remains the city best loved of the hyperrealist Luigi Rocca is amply demonstrated by this Munich exhibition, "New York Visions". These recent works show the city suspended between what it is and what we would like it to be; "visions" in the true – that is, the double – sense of the term, they chart New York life from first light to the depth of night.
The city itself is a relentless generator of images, and – like it – the artist never pauses except to capture those concentrated moments between one burst of energy and the next. Thus he follows, sometimes pursues, life as it is lived in all the various corners of the city; and to do so, he has to move with the same frenetic speed as New Yorkers themselves.
This account of the dynamics of a normal day within the ‘Big Apple’ starts, aptly enough, with early–morning jogging. Bleary eyes catch a glimpse of the beloved skyline, a brief vision that leaves little more than a blurred image – and then the jogger makes for the bridge over the river which will bring him back into the centre of downtown, where another day’s work awaits.
That day is spent behind the mirrored glass of New York’s innumerable skyscrapers, buildings which Rocca catches in ‘aerial’ views. Each individual office becomes a reflection, a visual effect within an enormous complex of glass and steel.In the lunch break or at the end of a day’s work one is swallowed up by the frenetic life of Broadway. Strollers and window–shoppers are caught up in the omnipresent and dazzling advertising that literally explodes around Times Square as evening comes. This is the pulsating heart of the city, the place where one sees all its blinding pzazz. Like modern–day Sirens, the neon–signs and digital–displays seem to lure the citizens of the New York away from their homes and into a world of insomnia, the world of a ‘city that never sleeps’.
In Rocca’s night shots, New York becomes speed, movement, vibration, frenetic activity. Human figures seem to disappear; or, rather, the only human figures that do appear are those in the huge advertisements, beings that seem to come from a parallel universe (perhaps that inhabited by Sirens and the other creatures of ancient myths).
These recent works by this master of ‘extreme hyperrealism’ push the boundaries of his art even further. There is an innovative juxtaposition of objects “in sharp focus” with those caught only in a “blur”. Perhaps this is Rocca's way of recognising that New York is the ideal city of the third millennium, a place of both certainties and hopes. To return to the double sense of the word ‘vision’, the city is a place where “what is” coexists with “what we would like there to be”.
In effect, Rocca's art is the sublimation of this dual concept: each picture is the transposition of “what is” (a photography) into what he would like there to be (a painting, though not one frozen in the immobility of a fixed image).
Within his continual changes of style, it is possible to chart a precise, perhaps unconscious, train of thought. It is almost as if Rocca aimed to surprise the viewer with the ease by which he can undermine or overturn the canons of his own means of expression. In places, the gaze is slowed to a near standstill; time seems to come to a halt within a hyperrealist precision of detail which verges on the maniacal. In others, the image is accelerated, with outlines and forms being rendered in long brushstrokes. In either case, the artist adopts the technique and palette best fitted to the ‘vision’ he has chosen.
These visions are inspired by Rocca's own particular ‘muse’: glossy colour photographs. Throughout his work on each painting, these images are there on his worktable, repeatedly consulted as he strives to transfer them to the painted canvas.
Rocca himself is a rather retiring figure; he shies away from the insistent questions of those who wish to analyse his work ‘to pieces’. However, recently he has been more forthcoming about why he opted for photo–realism and how he chooses his subject–matter.Rocca’s love of photography dates back to his childhood. His paternal grandfather worked as a photographer and thus the profession has long played a part in his life; it was almost inevitable that it have a profound effect upon his own personal and artistic development. And when one thinks about it, what is a photograph if not yet another ‘vision’, with the artist capturing a precise moment in the passage of reality in order to emphasize specific aspects of it? Look, for example, at the portraits by Newton and Mapplethorpe, or the post–industrial landscapes photographed by Vidor.
I recall in particular one comment Luigi Rocca has made with regard to his art: for him, work in fact comes to an end the moment he has chosen the photograph which he will re–write in paint. In making that choice perhaps more is involved than Rocca’s conscious will; perhaps a particular angle, a certain fall of light has such personal resonance with the artist that he finds himself drawn into the fixed image, needs to create his own, very personal, ‘vision’ thereof on canvas. And the result is just that: a ‘vision’ which is the perfect compromise between what is... and what we would like there to be.
Petra Schaefer Andreoli

"Urban Landscapes"

La realtà che non c’è
“Urban Landscapes”, “Paesaggi urbani” presenta capolavori dedicati al tema più popolare del Maestro friulano: l’attenta osservazione, l’analisi, la “vivisezione” delle metropoli americane con i loro grattacieli di cromature scintillanti, la frenesia del traffico dai colori brillanti, il via vai dei passanti sotto cartelloni pubblicitari sovradimensionati.
Il soggetto principale è – come spesso in questi ultimi dieci anni – New York. Il centro cosmopolita, la città che non dorme mai, capace di catturare ancor oggi, con nuovi seducenti sguardi, l’attenzione di Rocca. Nelle opere qui esposte, Rocca riesce ancora a sorprenderci con nuovi particolari, sorprendenti punto di vista, frutto di un’elaborata, diversa dinamicità. è così che, a volte rallentando lo sguardo – fino ad una quasi staticità, dove il tempo sembra fermarsi nella precisione iperrealista portata agli estremi fino al dettaglio maniacale – a volte accelerando – fino ad uno sciogliere dei contorni in lunghe pennellate – il Maestro sceglie la tecnica e la cromatura adatta al momento.
Spicca da sempre nell’opera di Luigi Rocca “Times Square”, luogo frenetico affollato al cuore di New York. è quindi tutt’altro che casuale la scelta del nuovissimo “Times Square night” come icona della mostra, quasi quintessenza del lavoro artistico di Rocca. Un’icona che sintetizza anche la sua voglia di spiazzare lo spettatore, che potrebbe aspettarsi un titolo del tipo “Yellow Cabs”, visti i numerosi i taxi gialli che scorrono in primo piano in Times Square, ma non sono loro in realtà i “veicoli” scelti da Rocca per proiettarci nella piazza newyorkese: piuttosto l’insegna “Maxwe(ll)” perfettamente a fuoco e immobile, evidente nella sua staticità che contrasta con la dinamicità di tutto il resto, vuoi perché in frenetico movimento (autoveicoli), vuoi perché in procinto di cambiare (le insegne intermittenti al neon come i grandi display in cristalli liquidi che trasmettono video). E’ il gioco del contrasto cromatico e dinamico che ci proietta nella Grande Mela, unica città al mondo in cui tali contrasti trovano il loro equilibrio in un armonico gioco del divenire/apparire.
E ad ingigantire il contrasto tra ciò che “corre”, quasi “sfugge” e ciò che è “immobile”, la scelta di Rocca di abbandonare il suo abituale ruolo di osservatore esterno all’immagine, quasi guardasse da un punto di vista lontano per sentirsi “al sicuro”, per avvicinarsi a tal punto al soggetto dipinto che rischia di venirne travolto.
Insolito il taxi in primissimo piano, di cui cogliamo appena la sagoma del tetto talmente improvvisa è la sua accelerazione, e altrettanto insolito lo sciogliersi dei contorni nei taxi sullo sfondo, dove ormai rimangono soltanto chiazze di colore. Un iperrealismo accelerato, dinamico, ispirato alla sensazione visiva dell’occhio umano che si blocca d’improvviso, nella ricerca affannata di un “fermo immagine” che gli permetta di mettere finalmente a fuoco il caos della strada.
è il cartellone pubblicitario Maxwe(ll), realizzato con eccellente precisione iperrealista, fotografica, un’istantanea, prima che lo sguardo torni a tuffarsi nella frenesia del traffico newyorkese.
Notiamo anche un cartellone rosso dove in caratteri illuminati leggiamo il titolo del quadro stesso: “Times Square”, irrequieto, sempre nuovo, sempre eccitante.
Poche le scritture che riusciamo a leggere. Sembra che l’artista ci renda visibile solo quello che ci deve interessare. Appare sul margine del quadro in grandi lettere la scrittura “LAST”. Tentiamo una lettura: “Last”…cosa? “Last Exit”: l’ultima uscita possibile per fuggire dal caos? “Last Drink”: l’ultimo momento da consumarsi in fretta prima dell’ora di chiusura? “Last View”: l’ultimo sguardo sulla vita notturna prima di rientrare nella routine della vita quotidiana? “Last chance”: l’ultima possibilità di scegliere tra ciò che vediamo e ciò che vorremmo poter guardare?
Non è forse questo che rende unica la vita nella Grande Mela: il continuo dover affrontare scelte che, forse anche solo apparentemente, condizioneranno in modo indelebile la nostra vita?
Scelte che ci vengono poste a prescindere dalle nostre azioni, quasi fosse la città stessa – con i suoi cartelli pubblicitari accecanti al punto di confonderci in un’allucinante illusione visiva – e nessun altro ad avere il potere di decidere della vita degli uomini.
Uomini che anche qui, infatti, non sono protagonisti: non ci sono persone sulle strade, vediamo solo le macchine in corsa, dove qualche ombra è soltanto traccia di vita umana. Ben altra è la “popolazione” di New York: quella che lascia testimonianza di sé nei cartelloni pubblicitari, dai quali cerca di lanciare i propri messaggi. Come in altri quadri precedenti – ricordo il magnifico “Jockey” esposto a San Diego – la città funge da mero sfondo a dei ritratti. è inquietante la presenza quasi sovraumana del viso sullo sfondo destro, appena abbozzato. Un “Memento mori”? Una figura quindi che ci vuole frenare nella nostra corsa inumana e farci riflettere sul vero senso della vita? Unico a contrapporsi? Unico ad affrontare la massa in movimento – “One Way” – nella direzione opposta? Non è solo, no, ci sono altre figure in cammino, sempre “contro mano”, avvicinandosi da uno sfondo azzurro, chiaro, che suggerisce l’illusione di uno spazio lontano eppure aperto come possibile via d’uscita, uscita d’emergenza, “LAST EXIT”.
è quindi l’ultima uscita che ci vuole indicare l’artista? Che sia il suo sguardo che si fa vedere dallo sfondo?
Il quadro ci offre interessanti spunti d’interpretazione, anche se dobbiamo ricordare che si tratta di un quadro iperrealista, anzi superrealistico, dove Rocca ci propone una riproduzione meccanica della realtà. Con la sua maestria, il suo accentuato accademismo, spersonalizza l’immagine e la sospende in un’irrealtà raggelata. Rocca crea una visione che va di là della realtà, stravolgendola.
Una realtà che non c’è, creata da Rocca quasi a invitare ciascuno di noi a guardare e a riflettere, ad analizzare e a sviluppare una visione del tutto personale delle sue opere, mentre lui è lì – celato dalla luce di un manifesto o dal riflesso di un auto - a guardare le nostre reazioni e a studiare in quale nuova, immaginifica realtà ci proietterà domani.
Petra Schaefer Andreoli
3 Settembre 2006

Reality that Isn’t
The new exhibition of work by this master of hyperrealism is entitled “Urban Landscapes”, with the Friulan artist returning to that which most attracts him: detailed and attentive observation of great American cities. Each work is a ‘vivisection’ which explores the dazzling chrome skyscrapers, the frenetic traffic, the hurrying pedestrians, the outsize advertising hoardings and neon signs of the modern American metropolis.
As has often been the case over the last ten years, the main subject is again New York, the city which never sleeps; and Rocca reveals how this great cosmopolitan centre can still attract and seduce the gaze of the artist. Once again his works astound us with new details, with surprising points of view. Varying his technique accordingly, the painter explores the very dynamics of vision. Sometimes he slows things down, creating almost static images within which Time seems to stand still and details are caught with a maniacal hyperrealist precision. At others, he speeds things up, dissolving outlines in long brushstrokes.
As always in his work, Times Square – the frenetic heart of New York – figures largely. It is, therefore, no coincidence that Time Square Night has been chosen as the image for the show, capturing as it does the very quintessence of Rocca’s art.
The image also reveals the artist’s desire to ‘wrong foot’ the spectator, who, given the large number of taxis that shot across the foreground of Time Square, might well have expected a title such as Yellow Cabs. However, Rocca has chosen a different ‘vehicle’ to project us into the reality of this urban environment: the “Maxwe(ll)” advertisement. Immobile and perfectly in focus, this stands in clear, static contrast to the dynamism of everything else – be it the frenetic movement of the cars or the constantly changing neon signs and huge liquid-crystal videos.
It is this contrast of colour and dynamics which projects us into the environment of the ‘Big Apple’, the only city in the world in which such contrasts achieve equilibrium through a harmonic play of becoming/appearing. To emphasise – ‘enlarge’ – this contrast between that which dashes by and that which is immobile, Rocca has abandoned his usual role as an external observer who might almost be said to choose a distant viewpoint in order to feel ‘safer’. Instead, here he draws so close to the subject of the painting that he risks being ‘run over’ by it.
Look at the unusual rendering of the taxi in the immediate foreground, whose speed is such that we barely grasp the shape of its roof. Or again, look at the unusual dissolve of taxis in the background, which become mere paint and colour.
This dynamic, accelerated hyperrealism is inspired by the visual sensation of suddenly halting the eye in an attempt to ‘freeze’ the image, to bring the chaos of the street into clear focus. Rendered with marvellous photographic precision, the Maxwe(ll) advertisement becomes a snapshot of the instant before the eye is once more caught up in the frenetic flow of the New York traffic.
Note, also, an illuminated red sign on which we can read the words “Times Square”; the very title of the picture is restless, always new, always exciting.
However, there is not much legible text in the picture. It is as if the artist wanted to make visible only that which should interest us. For example, to the edge of the image we can make out the word “LAST”... But last what? Last exit from this chaos? Last drink, to be gulped down just before closing time? Last view of this night world before the Square is once more reclaimed by the routine of daily life? Last chance to choose between what we can see and what we would like to see?
Isn’t this what makes life in the Big Apple so unique? This continuous need to make choices which, perhaps only apparently, will make an indelible mark on our lives as a whole? And such choices are posed irrespective of what we ourselves do. A place where dazzling neon signs confuse vision with illusion and hallucination, the city seems to have sole power to decide people’s lives. In fact, it is not people who are the lead actors here. In these streets we see only hurrying cars and traffic, with a human presence indicated only by the odd shadow.
The ‘population’ of New York is that which aims to project messages through neon signs, to promote itself in advertisements. This is an idea which can be found in previous Rocca paintings as well – for example, the magnificent Jockey exhibited at San Diego, in which the city is a mere background for portraits. And in this new painting, note the disturbing, almost superhuman, presence of the face sketched in towards the back right of the picture. Could this be a memento mori? Perhaps the image is intended to make us halt in the midst of our inhuman rush through existence and reflect upon the true meaning of life. But this is not the only figure to resist the massive ‘one way’ flow which runs against it. No, there are also other figures walking in ‘the wrong direction’, approaching from a light blue background which suggests the illusion of a distant space, the possibility of a ‘last exit,’ an emergency exit. And is it this exit that the artist wishes to point out to us? Is it his own artistic gaze which makes itself visible from the background of the painting?
The picture offers interesting material for interpretation, even if we must never forget that it is a hyperrealist – superrealist – image, in which Rocca offers us a mechanical reproduction of reality. His artistic mastery, his marked detachment, depersonalises the image and suspends it in a frozen reality. Rocca, in effect, creates an image that goes beyond reality, that overwhelms it.
In creating a ‘reality that isn’t’, Rocca seems to invite each one of us to look and reflect, to analyse his work and thence develop our own personal vision of it. In the meantime, hidden by the light of a neon sign or the reflection off a car’s gleaming paintwork, the artist himself is there, studying our reactions and planning the new figurative reality into which he will project us next time.
Petra Schaefer Andreoli
translated by Dr. Jeremy Scott

Die Wirklichkeit, die es nicht gibt
“Urban Landscapes”, “Städtische Landschaften” präsentiert Hauptwerke zu dem beliebtesten Themenkreis des Malers aus dem Friaul: die wache Beobachtung, die detaillierte Analyse, die “Vivisektion” der amerikanischen Metropolen mit ihren stählernen Hochhäusern, dem frenetischen Verkehr in leuchtenden Farbreflexen, dem Kommen und Gehen der Passanten inmitten überdimensionaler Werbeplakate.
Das Hauptmotiv ist – wie so oft in den letzten zehn Jahren – New York. Das kosmopolitische Zentrum, die Stadt, die nie schläft, bietet Rocca immer noch und immer wieder neue Impulse. In seinen hier ausgestellten Werken überrascht er den Betrachter auch bei bekannten Motiven mit immer neuen Einzelheiten und unerwarteten Blickwinkeln, wobei er die Technik und die Farbgebung individuell dem Augenblick und der Stimmung anpasst. So kommt es, dass Rocca den Blick zuweilen verlangsamt, bis hin zu einer beinahen statischen Wiedergabe in hyperrealistischer Präzision, in der die Zeit scheinbar stehen bleibt. Dann wieder beschleunigt er das Tempo bis zu einer Auflösung der Umrisslinien in raschen, großflächigen Pinselstrichen.
Eines der herausragenden Bildmotive in Luigi Roccas Werk ist seit jeher “Times Square”, der belebte, hektische und faszinierende Straßenzug im Herzen New Yorks. Die Wahl des neuesten “Times Square Night” als Ikone für diese Ausstellung kommt daher alles andere als unerwartet, gilt er doch als Quintessenz des künstlerischen Schaffens Roccas.
Eine Ikone, die auch das Vergnügen widerspiegelt, mit dem der Künstler den Betrachter deplaziert, der angesichts der zahlreichen gelben Taxis im Vordergrund von Times Square eher einen Titel wie “Yellow Cabs” erwarten würde. Doch die Taxis sind nicht die einzigen “Vehikel“, die uns in die Straßen New Yorks führen: vielmehr ist es der perfekt scharf gestellte und starre Schriftzug “Maxwe(ll)”. Dieser fällt dem Betrachter sofort ins Auge, weil er in starkem Kontrast zu der Dynamik der übrigen Elemente steht, die sich zum einen in schneller Bewegung befinden (Autos), zum anderen kurz davor sind, sich zu bewegen (die blinkenden Leuchtreklamen und die großen Bildschirme mit digitaler Videoanimation).
Es ist das Spiel mit chromatischen und dynamischen Gegensätzen, die uns in den “Big Apple“ hineinversetzen, die einzige Stadt der Welt, in der eben diese Gegensätze in einem harmonischen Spiel von Sein/Schein ihr Gleichgewicht finden.
Vergrößert wird der Kontrast dessen, was sich rasend schnell bewegt, geradezu “flieht”, und dem was “unbeweglich” ist, dadurch, dass Rocca seine übliche Rolle als außen stehender Betrachter des Bildes verlässt. Dort, wo er normalerweise das Geschehen von weitem, in “sicherer Entfernung“ beobachtet, nähert er sich hier so dicht an das gemalte Objekt an, dass er beinahe riskiert, davon mitgerissen, ja,Ungewöhnlich das Taxi im vordersten Bildgrund, das an uns vorbeirauscht und von dem wir nur den Umriss erkennen; ebenso ungewöhnlich die sich entfernenden Autos im Hintergrund, deren Silhouetten sich in große Farbflächen auflösen.
Ein beschleunigter, dynamischer Hyperrealismus, der sich an dem optischen Eindruck des menschlichen Auges orientiert, das auf der rastlosen Suche nach einem scharfen Standbild ist, auf dem es inmitten des chaotische Geschehens der Straße endlich innehalten kann.
Es ist das exzellent fotorealistisch wiedergegebene Werbeschild Maxwe(ll), auf dem das Auge des Betrachters ruht, bevor es sich wieder dem hektischen New Yorker Verkehr zuwendet.
Auf riesigen leuchtenden Lettern prangt auf grellem rotem Grund “Times Square”, der Titel des Gemäldes, aufs Neue anregend, aufregend.
Das Gemälde enthält wenige Schriftzeichen, die wir entziffern können. Rocca scheint bewusst eine Auswahl zu treffen, zu selektieren, was wir dechiffrieren sollen. So lesen wir am äußeren Rand des Gemäldes “LAST”, das sich auf vielfache Weise interpretieren lässt: “Last”…was? “Last Exit”: Die letzte Ausfahrt, um dem Chaos zu entkommen? “Last Drink”: Der letzte Augenblick, den es noch kurz vor Schluss zu genießen gilt? “Last View”: Der letzte Blick auf das Nachtleben vor der Rückkehr in den Alltag? “Last Chance”: Die letzte Chance, sich für das zu Entscheiden, was man sieht, oder für das, was man gerne sehen würde?
Ist das nicht die Einzigartigkeit, die das Leben im “Big Apple“ ausmacht: ständig Entscheidungen treffen zu müssen, die – vielleicht auch nur scheinbar – unser Leben nachhaltig beeinflussen?
Entscheidungen, die uns vollkommen unabhängig von unserem Handeln gestellt werden, ganz so als ob es die Stadt selber wäre – mit ihren grellen Werbeflächen, die uns so sehr blenden, dass sie uns in einer visuellen Illusion täuschen – die letztlich die Macht innehat, über das Leben der Menschen zu entscheiden.
Menschen, die auch in diesem Gemälde nicht im Mittelpunkt stehen: die Straße ist menschenleer, wir sehen lediglich die fahrenden Autos, in denen wenige Schatten auf eine menschliche Existenz hindeuten.
Ganz anders die “Bevölkerung” New Yorks: diejenige die uns in der Werbung begegnet, die versucht, ihre “Messagge“ unter die Leute zu bringen. Wie in früheren Werken – ich denke an das herausragende Gemälde “Jockey”, das jüngst in San Diego ausgestellt wurde – dient die Stadt als purer Hintergrund für Porträts. Beunruhigend die geradezu überirdische Präsenz des skizzenhaft umrissenen Gesichts, das uns aus dem rechten Bildhintergrund anschaut. Sollte dies ein “Memento Mori” sein? Eine Figur also, die uns in unserer unmenschlichen Raserei auf der überholspur ausbremsen möchte und uns anregt, den eigentlichen Sinn unseres Lebens zu hinterfragen? Der Einzige, der sich uns in den Weg stellt? Der Einzige, der sich der Masse in Bewegung – “One Way” – in der Gegenrichtung entgegenstellt? Nein, er ist nicht allein, es gibt auch andere Personen, die sich dem großen Strom entgegensetzen, die in die “Gegenrichtung” laufen. Diese nebulösen, gesichtslosen Figuren nähern sich aus einem hellblauen Grund, der uns die Illusion eines fernen und doch offenen Raumes suggeriert, als handelte es sich um einen möglichen Ausgang, einen Notausgang, „LAST EXIT”.
Ist es also der letzte Ausgang, die letzte Ausfahrt, die uns der Künstler aufzeigen will? Ist es etwa sein Blick, der uns aus dem Bildhintergrund durchdringt?
Das Gemälde bietet uns interessante Anregungen und eröffnet verschiedene Interpretationsansätze. Und dennoch handelt es sich um ein hyperrealistisches, superrealistisches Gemälde, in dem uns Rocca eine mechanische Reproduktion der Wirklichkeit wiedergibt. Sein Werk aber liegt jenseits der Realität, denn mit seiner Meisterhaftigkeit, seiner akzentuierten akademischen Perfektion, entpersonalisiert er das Bild und suspendiert es in einer erstarrten Irrealität.
Eine Wirklichkeit, dies es nicht gibt. Geschaffen von Luigi Rocca, um jeden einzelnen von uns einzuladen, seine Werke in Ruhe zu betrachten, zu analysieren, zu hinterfragen, um schließlich eine vollkommen eigene, persönliche Interpretation zu erarbeiten, während er – verborgen von dem Licht eines Werbeplakates oder von dem blendenden Reflex eines Autos – im Verborgenen bleibt und von dort unsere Reaktionen beobachtet und überlegt, welche neue, bilderreiche Wirklichkeit er uns morgen vorführen wird.