Claudio Malacarne was born in Mantua in 1956. From his earliest works, drawing became a privileged field of action and reflection: broad, autonomous and at the same time complementary to painting. It is an uninterrupted laboratory, a continuous diary through which the artist seeks to possess reality by recreating it through images.
While attending the studio of Enrico Longfils, Malacarne experimented with different media, from pencil studies—especially of animals, where he focused on the plasticity of form—to pen and Indian ink, first with minute broken marks and later with denser, continuous lines, often dissolved into fluid watercolour passages.
From the oil paintings of the 1980s onward, the influence of Post-Impressionism can be perceived, particularly Gauguin, Van Gogh, Bonnard and Matisse. Light becomes a decisive element: colour rebounds across palms, sea water and building façades, creating an intense luminous atmosphere.
Between 2003 and 2008, the works devoted to jazz concerts introduced a stronger existential tension. The symbolic structure of the compositions coexists with a more instinctive and visceral energy. The same conflict between order and instinct also appears in his animal heads and in the Polyptych of 2007.
After encountering the Spanish realism of Joaquín Sorolla, Malacarne increasingly focused on bathers and swimmers. The human figure, immersed in the water of swimming pools, becomes a central subject through which he explores modern life, physical presence and perception. His painting combines the sensuous legacy of Matisse with a suspended, visionary atmosphere.
