Pets c. 1954

Mario De Ferrante made ‘Pets’, sometime in the 20th century, likely using printmaking techniques. I love the muted, earthy tones here, that palette of browns, yellows, and blues gives the image a nostalgic, almost faded quality. Looking at the flattened planes, the overlaid textures and geometric shapes, I imagine De Ferrante meticulously layering each element, carefully balancing representation with abstraction. I wonder, did he have a pet of his own? Maybe he observed it sleeping, trying to capture its essence in a simplified form? There is a great rhythm to the stripes, the scales, and the patchwork patterns; it almost feels musical, as if De Ferrante was thinking about how to harmonize different visual elements. In a way, paintings are like conversations between artists. De Ferrante maybe spoke with the Cubists like Braque or Picasso and their ways of seeing, and perhaps passed the phone to David Hockney for his way of painting pets! Ultimately, painting is a form of embodied expression, a way of embracing ambiguity and uncertainty and allowing for multiple interpretations of meaning.