Ruggiero Dargenio, Ruda in art, was born on 7 August 1976 in Barletta (Italy).
He began to paint
during adolescence
simply for curiosity,
not knowing that
the painting would
soon become
necessary for his
daily life and his
private and artistic
training. His
training is not
obvious and it does not follow a classical path. In fact he carried out scientific
studies, graduating in Engineering at the Politecnico of Bari, and setting his
engineering office in a short time.
Always interested in the greatest masters of painting of all times, he tryed to
worm out their secrets appreciating the role of painting with the passing of the
centuries. He joined the world of visual arts as a self-taught, reading books
about art technique and criticism.
Tireless traveller and visitor of exhibitions, he has easily found ideas to follow
his incredible desire to try different colours and different techniques.
He took part to his first exhibitions as an emerging artist , then decided toexpand the horizons of his exsperimentation, always combining the brushstrokes
to the academic practice.
In March 2000, he met Giacomo Borracino, Borgiąc in art, and attended his
artistic laboratory. Here every day working and painting on commission, he
had the possibility to impove art styles and to expand his technical
background. Experience leads him to expand the artistic field, accelerating his
stylistic growth, rendering original his style which becomes functional to his
subjects and to his way of conceiving painting and art.
His peculiarity is, without doubt, his curiosity which has always led him to face
with different
cultures and to
know the
mechanisms of
reality, the
reactions of
people under
different social
pressures and
himself: from this
arises the need for his artistic sign.
With painting, in fact, he has always wanted to show some shades of reality
and not as it is, but only as it appears to his eyes.In this sense, especially in recent
years, his intention is to enter
the world in order to decipher
the various ethnic groups that
form it.
In May 2002 Ruda's life is marked
by an unexpected event: he
knows the pain of a disease
which will follow him for all the
life. Crohn disease, in fact, will be
his companion for life; his
painting became increasingly
important and was the
protagonist of the exhibition of
2007 entitled: "Portrait of my 16 th chromosome."
With the following words he guides the audience and gives distinctive features
to the exhibition:
"The title of the art-exibition, my way of interpreting painting and my personal
technique, are all the expression of my world. Sometimes, at a certain time, we
have to face hard, unforseen trials. For several years, my life was marked by
the Crohn disease, due to an inherent defect in the 16th chromosome. A disease
that now is my inseparable companion.
Apart from all the inconveniences associated with ups and downs of my
health, more important is the change, the trend that emerges from it:
thoughts, ideas, words change, ... but above all the eyes change. What before
had strong colours, now has very strong ones, what had first light colours, now
they seem to vanish and disappear. With my new eyes I see my life flowering in front of me. With these new eyes I cannot (perhaps I do not want) to see
everything. With these new eyes my 'wishes' increase".
In 2004 he went to Barcelona (Spain), where he met other artists and portrait
painters of the Rambla. Here the comparison with the world international art,
gives him new goads and new possibilities for experimentation. He learns the
art of painting on paper and pratctices it remembering the sensations of
Schiele's art.
He said that academic painting "... alienates man from his creations and from
himself as part of his creations."
Painting on paper emphasizes his artistic introspection and increases his
technical, artistic and human sensibility.
His constant quest of man is tireless: the dignity of man and his beauty,
sometimes hidden by social privations, and his role within nature. In the
diversity of the world he finds the lost man and catches him in a glance
trought a brush on a canvas, in contrast with the sophistication and
refinement of the stroke and technique, as well as the beauty of the eyes , the
purity of each child and the divinity of every woman (as the source of life) are
in contrast with the ugly things in the world around us, made of poverty of
means and spirit. This is one of the clues for understanding Ruda's works: it is
important to stop and look at people we meet.
Ruda gives back us the beauty of diversity of each of us, for example the
dignity of someone who hardly goes on ... instilling a sense of peace and
serenity, indispensable element in modern life more than ever.Ruda's strength is in undertaking
gently comparison with each of
his subjects, emphasizing and
giving them a certain and
indelible dignity throught the
physicalness of his stroke.
There is a continuous giving and
taking between the artist and
his subjects, a "do ut des" which
engages the observer who is
inevitably called to confront and
deal with each of the entities
Ruda submits us. |
