Stefano Butera Biography
Stefano Butera was born in Varese in 1949. His first solo exhibition at the “Internazionale” gallery in Varese was in 1971. In 1972 he was in Geneva and his enormous canvases aroused the admiration of the French critic René Terrier who dedicated a flattering article to him. His figuration immediately appears linked to a strong humanistic feeling. The artist does not exhibit a painting made of words, most of the time incomprehensible, or of concepts hidden and hidden in the deepest meanders of the human mind. Butera is someone who paints seriously and he demonstrates it very well in every work. The difficult technique adopted by the Flemish through the overlaying of oil color for glazing lives in each of his paintings, transforming it into something magical and satisfying. His landscapes are expertly painted and is undeniable even to the least experienced observer. They are easy to read visually and have an elaborate pictorial technique at the same time. His views reveal, in the care of their drafting and in the precision of the details, the precious bond between the artist and the beauty of the Italian territory, the close relationship between nature and his unique way of knowing how to reinterpret it. His views reveal, in the care of their drafting and in the precision of the details, the precious bond between the artist and the beauty of the Italian territory, the close relationship between nature and his unique way of knowing how to reinterpret it. Butera actively participates in the life of his paintings, undergoing their charm, nourishing them with feeling, making what is already superlative wonderful. Its views are full of grace and poetry: of immense horizons, of gentle waters caressed by the wind, of fields irradiated with sun and serenity. The Tuscan Maremma, the reed thickets of Lake Varese and Lake Pusiano, Lake Como and the woods of Insubria are his most loved subjects. During his artistic career Butera alternates personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad until 1987, the year of the beginning of his most demanding effort; a series of large frescoes inspired by the Encyclical “Redemptor Hominis” commissioned for the church of San Grato in Varese. In that work, which occupied him for two years, Butera achieved a formal antithesis, bearing the imprint of poetry, entrusted to an authentic religious feeling. Subsequently, the series of “Italian Landscapes” began and continues to this day. Let's say straight away that the optimal size for these works is the large format, with a broad structural scope. In 1989 he was invited by the municipality of Varese to participate in the traveling exhibition which starting from Villa Mirabello continued on to Moscow, Kijev, Tblisi. He illustrates two books published by the Dall'oglio publishing house. In 1994 he exhibited at the prestigious Dominion Foundation in Montreal. Since the beginning of his activity he has exhibited in more than ninety galleries around the world.
