one colour, endless anxieties…| Red Tweny

TO UNDERSTAND BETTER MY DRAWINGS IT COULD BE USEFUL TO KNOW THAT I’M TRYING TO HOLD TOGETHER VARIOUS STYLES: REMODERNISM, EXPRESSIONISM, DARK ART, SURREALISM, POP ART, DADA ART AND NEW FIGURATION.

Trying to be as direct as possible I use one single color without any digital manipulation: I use only my soul and a traditional ink pen. It is born a style that I think is quite new and recognizable among others, reminiscent of the fears of our century and the uneasiness of our souls: I try to tell you the shabby daily lives as opposed to the higher needs of the human soul, almost always disappointed.

Red Tweny was born in Rome in 1964. First of two children, he lives a childhood iper-protected from the mother, who perhaps will be for him the imprinting of a sense of insecurity and of estrangement from reality, plaintiff in his life and in his works. He graduated in 1984 at the Mary Mount College in Rome, whose pedagogic method, characterized by a humanistic philosophy of religion, gave a prominent role to the “spiritual nourishment” of creativity. His artistic talent is revealed early, encouraged by his mother who sent (barely twelve years old) to drawing lessons from an illustrator, within the same College. Since childhood Red shows interest in art, driven from his mother that forced him – obsessively – to visit the main exhibitions of contemporary art arranged in Rome in the middle of 70’s. Red, barely twenty years old, was struck by the death of his father – who himself finds lifeless – marking deeply the psyche and then the style of his subjects. He gets started to attend many collective exhibitions in Rome, where he stands for the search of new subjects in the new italian figuration.

Study of a runny eye | ink on paper | 50×70 cm

In 1985, helped by his artistic talents, began to work in advertising department of Eni, the italian energy company, where during all the 90’s he had the chance to know and work closely with the main advertising international agencies that influenced him, producing a style where living together the direct advertising graphics style and the elements of classical and the surreal painting. In the 90’s he uses also the technique of watercolor, then in 2000 he choose the black ink which helps to make his style and his subjects instantly recognizable. Red Tweny’s drawings are characterized by an exaggerated and mesmerizing use of black ink. His subjects produce a strong impressionist impact and are immediately recognizable among others. The meanings are not hidden but are brought out with simplicity and immediacy, without useless elements. The messages are shown directly, as if it had developed with the modern and essential language of Twitter. His studies are centered around lonely characters that writhe, tangled and dissolve in a vain attempt to give meaning to their existence. A recurring theme is the human being seen as if he were experiencing an accident or during a surgical operation without anesthesia. The deep expressionist charge utilizes the exclusive use of black and white to escalate the violence, the coldness, the squalor and desolation of the human condition, torn by internal and external crisis: Tweny observes the reality as opposed to the higher needs of the human soul, almost always disappointed. Exclusive use of black and white gives a more edgy character to his subjects that are often suspended in the white space which seems to have been taken off the air. The feeling of lack of air increases the tension of the bodies gasping and convulsive that writhe or crumble in the empty space that supports them. Other Tweny’s skills is to create entities which together express horror and destruction, but closely observed reveal dozens of harmonic elements as continuous and perfect spirals, perfect waves and infinite bends round and smooth: is the second interpretation of the works of Red Tweny that makes live together the good with the bad, as it happens every day. It reminds us the continuous conflict and compromise that humans must manage throughout its existence.