Rifless.d (2007) Painting by Francesco Silvestri

Francesco Silvestri
Cortale (Calabria), 1962


Francesco Silvestri, a painter of Calabrian origins, was born in Cortale in the province of Catanzaro, on December 4, 1962. His artistic predisposition developed very early, when his uncle Andrea Cefaly junior in his large studio in Cortale allowed him to paint for the first time at the tender age of four.
He attended only the first grade in his native town and then moved with his whole family to his father's town, Modugno, in the province of Bari. Francesco Silvestri's father married Adriana Cefaly, part of a noble and important family for the Italian artistic and cultural panorama.
Andrea Cefaly senjor, a wealthy man of the Bourbon nineteenth century, was a great example for our south.
A high-level painter, after attending the Neapolitan school, he founded a Cortalese school of painting.
We remember his friendship with the Palizzi brothers.
His paintings had a fundamental importance for the theme of family events represented in a sublime way with a careful analysis between realism and regionalism, or we remember works of profound religious setting, Garibaldi's war enterprises. It is important to remember his political life as a deputy in the first two Italian legislatures, where he promoted the abolition of the death penalty, his works which are kept in the main Italian and foreign museums: the Louvre, the museum of Palermo, Capodimonte Reggio Calabria etc. ..
Andrea Cefaly junior will continue with painting, he was a very simple and reserved person with extreme altruism, he never wanted to impose himself on the art market, he was Felice Casorati's favorite student, he invented a new and personal style of expressionism.
We remember his participation in the Venice Biennale in 1950, won by Matisse, the Rome Quadrennial Art Exhibition, the Maggio Barese. From his ancestors Francesco inherited altruism, but above all the love for art.
Francesco loves to live among people, in close contact, observing and experiencing strong and transgressive emotions, for the desire to compete; or to understand and to understand himself. to then express in one go in an exemplary manner with a rapid violent and sweet brushstroke his state of mind, lived and photographed in his mind to then be painted capturing all the possible aspects to delight us or to kidnap us in a drastic way, without sometimes following canons or perspectives or reality, but only visions or flashes, moments captured from the most vivid absolute depth that only a few contemporary painters know how to represent. In his artistic career, or rather in his works we can read an interesting path linked to his private life spent scrutinizing here and there not very clear situations, interior scenes most of the time female or male figures with a thousand expressions even satanic, which are there to signify moments of reflection, communication, fun, love, freedom, irony, g...

• Nationality: ITALY
• Date of birth : 1962
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Italian Artists