Butera’s way of handling volume in his constructions reveals a sensitivity to plastic form that is closely linked to his inmost vision, and indeed to the very way he lives his life. His is a tension that delves into irony, tragedy, and the grotesque, into tradition and eros. He organizes human figures, events and passion so as to overwhelm them whit a breadth of human inspiration that is strikingly original, rooted as it is in a word both archaic and highly civilized. In Butera, intimate feeling takes on visual form, exalting in the exploration of the culture of the Australian aborigines as in the rediscovery of raku pottery. Thus, Butera’s chosen materials-bronze, terracotta (both glazed and unglazed) and plaster of paris – become complementary to the panting, and vice-versa, thanks to the play of light on surface also revealed in the traces of his stroke. Thus, the observer is introduced to a poetic statement that is at once harsh and vigorous.
Ugo Barlozzetti
