ANDREA BABETTO’S WORKS
HUMAN MIND
A work created during a period of deep reflection. Having recently turned 60, I am beginning to realise that the life remaining to me is far less than what I have already lived. During this time, I am on the verge of making significant decisions for both my professional and personal life. I am analysing what I truly desire from the future, choosing to eliminate the superfluous, the 'non-friendships', and professional activities I no longer enjoy. I refuse to compromise further, aiming for a simpler life that offers true values rather than external validation for my self-esteem.
The painting features a white circle in the foreground, symbolising purity of spirit, my primary objective.
The shape of a human skull is also evident, within which I am contemplating my future and the choices I wish to make.
A clear vertical cut highlights the difficulties, bitterness, and sometimes unbearable pains my mind has had to endure. What I wish to convey is the ability to live in peace with myself, constantly seeking purity of spirit and giving love to cherished individuals.
ARCHITECTURE
This is certainly one of the works I am most fond of, one that best represents my style, my artistic rigour blended with the evolutions of my dreaming mind. In this work, there is a search for perfection where the centre, a white circle, symbolises the purity of spirit I constantly seek in my journey called life.
The lines that, from the sides of the painting, seek to cage the circle, represent the unpredictable and infinite choices that, like every human, I am called upon to make daily, striving to do so with awareness and respect for my ideals as a straightforward, clear, and transparent person.
The geometric squares that complete the painting, of various shapes, sizes, and finishes, represent the world I inhabit, the experiences I have lived, and the friends and people I meet and interact with daily.
I particularly love this painting because it is the right mix of rigour and mastery, precision and imagination.
SADLY
Created during a sad period of my personal life, this work encapsulates within its forms and lines a plea for help and a hesitant, hopeless message of friendship and love.
The painting clearly shows white 'holes' which, in my imagination, represent escape routes towards happiness and serenity, 'paths' symbolising ways out of the dead end of my life. There is a feverish pursuit to communicate my unease through strong, angular, thick strokes, which are integrated into softer lines; the former signal danger and insecurity, while the latter integrate into a life that appears joyful, represented by softer and more harmonious lines and forms. In this work, more than any other I have created, my mental disorder and the disharmony I was experiencing are highlighted.
WOMAN IN PROFILE
In this painting, my classic style meets the beauty of a female face depicted with extraordinary simplicity, without embellishments. The pursuit of pure beauty led me to draw the woman's head in the most basic way possible, without hair, without ornaments, making the depiction extremely fascinating in its simplicity. In the right part of the painting, my typical style returns, accompanying almost all my works, dissolving seamlessly into the female nape, creating a delightful play of fading. This part of the work is particularly important; it expresses my desire to infuse my style, which represents myself, with feminine beauty, in search of sublimating my inner beauty.
GIRL WITH SCARF
A representation that recalls my youth, the maternal figure.
It is not intended as a portrait but rather an abstract figure that exalts feminine beauty according to my canons. The scarf on the very elongated neck, a symbol of elegance, is the protagonist of the painting. My objective was to highlight the precision of the strokes and the designs of the scarf, always in pursuit of perfection and stylistic precision. The face and long hair are deliberately merely sketched. Finally, the painting is completed by a background that echoes the typical stroke and style repeated in all my works.
MAYA
This painting, named Maya, refers to a Toltec civilisation sculpture depicting Mesoamerican religious deities. The statue that inspired me is exhibited at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, which I visited in 2023. The inclusion of different styles in tracing the lines of the face and body was particularly stimulating.
The background of the entire drawing, with my distinctive classic style, defines the body.
JOURNEY
In this painting, I wanted to represent, in my own way and with personal style, an important part of my lived experiences: my travels.
As often found in my works, there is a central element that becomes the protagonist in the painting: a line, a path that vertically cuts the work in two. It represents the journey of my life, with the natural incidents that lead to modifying the planned route.
The painting depicts the important stages of my travels, some snapshots imprinted in my mind of objects that struck my imagination around the world. Being one of the first paintings created with this style, there is not yet a feverish pursuit of perfection in the strokes. There is, therefore, an authentic, unconstrained stylistic freedom, less conformed to a self-imposed rigour that came later.
GYPSY WITH CHILD
A direct, unfiltered painting where I express the unease and restlessness I experienced during that period. The painting depicts a scene from everyday life showing a gypsy woman with her child. The woman, disinclined to be a mother, dedicates herself to a life of loose morals, attracted by easy money and unrestrained entertainment in a place where anything is possible and everything is without rules. The child, despite himself, must succumb, must grow up quickly, deprived of play and his childhood. The woman's face is deliberately absent, demonstrating that what attracts attention is not the pure and clean beauty of a face but the pleasures of the flesh. The child, made up and tattooed as if an adult, is placed in the lower right context, demonstrating his submission to his mother. Around the two subjects, lines depict a place of perdition.
THE EYE
The eye represents the primary objective of my constant pursuit of Beauty. The eye as a tool that allows me to appreciate the Beauties surrounding me: nature, art, design, the beauty that unconsciously brings me happiness and joy of living every day.
This work aims to be an exercise in style where the search for clean, simple, and at the same time perfect lines brings me security and fulfilment. The work is completed with my classic ornamental style that fills the four corners of the painting.
THE ROLE OF THE FATHER
This drawing is a kind of dedication to my teenage daughter. She is growing up, no longer a child, beginning to develop her own mindset, character, personality, and interests. The drawing aims to represent a kind of purity and at the same time an elegant, defined, and strong personality in its perspective dimension.
It represents the harmonious evolution of life, almost defining the foundation upon which maturity is built.
LIFE
I consider this painting a masterpiece of perfection where my style expresses two very important concepts: beauty, represented by a simple, clean, slender female body, and at the centre, a depiction recalling the origin of life. This painting is part of a specific period of my artistic life in which I constantly sought to represent beauty and purity.
BLACK AND WHITE
Two individuals, different from each other but sharing lived experience, meet and give life to a splendid love story. The drawing depicts two people of different skin colours; the tattoos on their bodies represent their experiences, their history. These tattoos are very similar, indicating that their lived experiences have made them equal regardless of their skin colour.
CHAMPAGNE
What better way to spend an evening in good company than by drinking a glass of champagne with sincere friends. For this painting, I drew inspiration from a pleasant summer evening spent in excellent company, during which I rediscovered moments of serenity and happiness that are increasingly rare in life.
Technically, the ice bucket and the neck of the bottle are made with my typical style, but, unlike other paintings, here the texture is broad, almost bulimic, to highlight an abundance of happiness.
METAMORPHOSIS
This work, one of the very few where colour is used, aims to represent my different states of mind, the historical moments of a mutable life. The work is divided into 13 clearly visible segments, each narrating a particular moment of happiness. It is a painting that conveys joy, light-heartedness, vitality, while subtly highlighting some dark areas along the way. In detail, in the bottom left square, one can observe some less colourful scenes with darker hues, delimited by black outlines, representing a particularly dark period of my existence. Overall, however, the painting, with its vibrant colours, conveys happiness.
THE DANCE
This work conveys joy and light-heartedness from the very first glance. The painting depicts festive scenes and moments of carefree abandon, intricately set within each other.
As in my other works, this one also features a pristine circle symbolising purity of spirit.
Finally, at the centre of the painting, there are vertical elements, barely evident at first glance, which almost cut the work in half, serving as a reminder that, even in a festive context like this, there are difficult and sad moments that undermine even the best days of our existence.
CROSSROADS
Lines of varying thickness that recall the life paths of strangers who casually cross paths. Some of these encounters blossom into friendship, others into love, while others are forgotten in a few minutes. In my imagination, this is how I interpret the serendipity that leads us to meet our dearest people, with whom we live the rest of our lives.
The technique used is typical of my work: perfect lines of varying thickness accompanied by a connecting texture. Particularly simple yet very pleasing due to the level of precision achieved.
RECLINING WOMAN
In this work, life is represented through symbolic drawings that overlap, highlighting how our lives prevent us from savouring the present, constantly striving to beat time by frenetically living every minute we have available. Beauty in this work is represented by a slender, elongated body, barely sketched, that traverses the entire painting longitudinally. This stylised figure, which represents
beauty and harmony through the stylised figure of a woman, aims to communicate serenity, happiness, and attention to our present life. We must learn to live in the present, observing the simplest things that happen to us and which are often the most important, those that leave us the simplest and deepest memories.
OCEAN
A painting that deviates significantly from the classic style used. I wanted to experiment with other forms of expression, using Indian ink as a negative to make the subjects emerge in light. The large imaginary fish at the centre of the scene aims to represent oppression, the cruelty of some men in using power to their advantage. The large fish, deliberately ungainly and unsettling in appearance, represents the powerful forces of politics and economy – the multinational corporations that devour, leaving no room for individual initiative and creativity. There is also a vague reference to Dante's circles of hell, inspiring the message's representation.
WOMAN'S PROFILE
Created during an artistic period in which I sought the purity of forms through the stylised depiction of female bodies that communicate charm and seduction. This piece portrays a woman with refined features at the centre, surrounded by the nightlife of a large city. My intention is to insert a figure of uncommon allure into the frenetic nightlife of a major city. The work aims to represent the contrast between the glittering and frantic nocturnal energy of a megalopolis and the noble, elegant, and highly charming figure of the woman.
THE FISHING VILLAGE
This piece is one of my absolute favourites. Here, my hand ran wild without rules or fears. I created it one summer in the nineties after returning from a seaside holiday. Here I depict a fishing village nestled in the lush nature of a Greek island where tourism had not yet significantly influenced daily life and the genuine character of the locals. The painting, as mentioned, has no rules; it was not planned but created in one breath, without hesitation. The result is a lively and disordered intersection of messages that convey a desire to live according to rhythms and styles not bound by the stress of city life.
RAINBOW
Created at a young age, this painting represents fragments of lived life. A general optimism and zest for life, a desire to have fun and play with one's way of living, are evident at first glance. In each square, there is a play of styles, shapes, and subjects that intersect well, creating a life path through time. The painting conveys joviality and positivity. Although created at the end of the millennium with drawing techniques I had not yet explored, a very personal character already emerges, and in the style, precise strokes already seeking perfection are recognisable.
BUBBLES
What better way to represent childhood, the innocence and purity of a child, than through play. My childhood memories take me back to games, and particularly to soap bubbles. A wonderful period of life, rich in discoveries and happiness, that will remain in my mind forever. Interpreting this painting is very simple and direct: Indian ink strokes that reproduce soap bubbles. Here too, the pursuit of perfection in lines is present, as in every work I have created.
WOMEN
In my artistic journey, I sometimes experiment with new techniques, new methods of expressing my feelings: this painting is an example. Women are the theme, a symbol of elegance, beauty, and charm. In these squares, I propose various themes: female silhouettes are the leitmotif, but also details like a breast, the mouth, and female accessories, all to express the magic of feminine beauty. In some squares, there are depictions of women who are not conventionally beautiful: elderly ladies, a girl with dishevelled hair, faces with and without makeup, indicating that beauty is subjective but always feminine.
TREE
The subject, very simple and stylised, aims to represent positivity and optimism. Nature is life, and the tree, more than any other living being, summarises the phases of life. Stylistically, in this work too, I am in pursuit of perfection in the strokes, defining every detail with particular attention. The typical knots of a tree trunk become for me a reason to artistically develop individual style projects that intersect with each other.
GEOMETRIES
A charming and understated work that stands apart from my classic pieces. The use of geometry, primarily cubic forms, aims to represent a cosmopolitan city.
The final result is satisfying, harmonious, and particularly pleasing as a whole. The strokes, mostly made with very fine pens to give lightness, are interrupted or intersected by thicker strokes to give plasticity to the work.
MOTHER WITH CHILD
In this work, concepts dear to my artistic practice emerge: the woman, representing beauty; the child, representing the meaning of life, continuity; and finally, the repetition of the dual role of every female individual as woman and mother. The lines that define the mother's and child's faces are decisive, strong, intertwined, highlighting the woman's tormented state of mind. The mother's suffering is a childhood memory, the mother embracing her child with such love, and the child understanding and imagining the great unexpressed suffering the woman carries within. The emotion-rich bond between mother and child is evident, emotions, trepidations, fears for something the young one cannot comprehend.
LADY WITH FRINGE
A painting created during a particular moment when I was angry with humanity. In drawing this face and this part of the bust, I wanted to give expression to all my resentment towards human beings, tracing vigorous lines and creating energetic forms that convey all my rage. The woman depicted thus becomes acidic, not particularly graceful; her gaze is strong and cutting. A painting that faithfully transmits my sense of malaise at that moment.
WOMAN WITH HAT
The painting depicts an elegant and fascinating lady, with a large hat and conspicuous earrings, observing the artwork that envelops her. The artwork, which forms the background of the painting and at the same time surrounds the entire female figure, is an inlay of abstract designs. As is my custom, the woman is depicted with a few minimal lines with the aim of highlighting her elegance, beauty, and purity.
WOMAN'S PROFILE IN A GARDEN
The foreground scene of the painting is the garden with its wonderful flowers and the butterfly landing on them. In the painting, there is the barely sketched profile of a young woman; her long, flowing hair is highlighted in negative, emerging amidst the lush nature. The work conveys the beauty of a blooming, lush garden; the long hair of a beautiful young woman completes the jovial scene of great serenity.
WOMAN WITH CHILD IN VENICE
A painting I am very fond of for its refinement and style. The painting is set in my imagination, in Venice, a city rich in history, culture, and art. In the foreground is the face of a refined woman with an elegant and voluminous hat. In the lower part, the sketched face of a child is glimpsed, metaphorically being breastfed by the mother. It is deliberately a contradiction: the refined, well-dressed, and well-made-up woman breastfeeding her child aims to highlight the many roles in every woman's life today.
EMOTION 1 of 3
The triptych depicts a plant from its roots to its apex, or the journey of a life, from the beginning when it is nourished by its roots, representing the maternal figure, to the various paths it chooses in youth, up to maturity where the choices made in youth mark and define its identity. The style is fresh, jovial; the three paintings convey optimism. A work that, through its 'branches' winding throughout the painting, transmits positivity from the very first glance.
EMOTION 2 of 3
The triptych depicts a plant from its roots to its apex, or the journey of a life, from the beginning when it is nourished by its roots, representing the maternal figure, to the various paths it chooses in youth, up to maturity where the choices made in youth mark and define its identity. The style is fresh, jovial; the three paintings convey optimism. A work that, through its 'branches' winding throughout the painting, transmits positivity from the very first glance.
EMOTION 3 of 3
The triptych depicts a plant from its roots to its apex, or the journey of a life, from the beginning when it is nourished by its roots, representing the maternal figure, to the various paths it chooses in youth, up to maturity where the choices made in youth mark and define its identity. The style is fresh, jovial; the three paintings convey optimism. A work that, through its 'branches' winding throughout the painting, transmits positivity from the very first glance.
PANORAMA
In this work, my pursuit of Order, Perfection, and Rigour continues. The protagonist of the painting is the eye observing the surrounding environment. An environment composed of Rigour: well-defined and orderly rectangles, completed with the classic miniatures I use in my works. Each rectangle is equal and – at the same time – different from the others. Subtle nuances and different ways of using the miniatures ensure that each square is original and evocative. In my imagination, the eye observes nature and the rural life expressed in well-aligned cultivated fields, where the human imprint that respects the territory creates the perfect ecosystem. Finally, the lines that, starting from the eye, wander towards the sides of the painting, represent the multiple perspectives that follow one another over time.
Such was the effort to create this work: 250 hours of labour do not sufficiently express the endeavour to complete this painting.
RESTLESS SOUL
In this work, the protagonist is a stylised man. The individual's form is original and personal, drawn with simple yet evocative lines that evoke the image of a tireless worker, completely immersed in his role within a system that offers no possibility to express his personality, his self. The depictions surrounding the individual are geometric shapes, filled with miniatures typical of my style, representing rigorous organisational structures, typical of today's multinational corporations, to which every modern manager must forcibly conform. The clear message I wish to convey with this painting is how today's world of work does not allow for the expression of one's creativity, one's intellect.
NUANCES
The gestation and creation of this painting were particularly complex and lengthy. Defining the subject's form was a task that led me to interrupt execution and restart from scratch multiple times. My quest, as often happens in my works, is to convey elegance and purity in the female form, despite it being a very stylised and amorphous model. In addition to the female figuration, the painting features rich infill work on both the woman's bust and its outline. A play of textures with various styles and stroke intensities, which subtly converge towards the protagonist figure. Finally, the unprecedented texture used to complete the outermost parts of the painting is very delicate and pleasing.
ROAD
A painting that is part of a very small collection of works where I used colour. A vertical cut, the protagonist in the work, represents all the difficulties we are called upon to overcome every day to continue living. All around the cut, there are paths and geometric shapes that represent the multitude of choices we are called upon to make at every moment of our existence, which fatally influence our journey. I have ideally coloured, with vibrant colours, the path of my life. I find this painting very balanced; it conveys positivity and optimism.
CONTACT ANDREA BABETTO
Andrea Babetto’s contact section is designed as a simple and direct space, where anyone wishing to connect with him can do so without formality. Here, his two souls meet: the entrepreneurial one, always attentive to projects and ideas that can grow, and the artistic one, more intimate and curious, seeking sincere and stimulating dialogues.
Whether you wish to propose a collaboration, share an insight, or simply start a conversation, this space is designed to approach him naturally. It is an invitation to write, to tell, to begin something together.