One of the most interesting sources of Pontilloli’s work is the large number of cameos in his recent works. The image of Christ is usually somewhere, usually attached to the cross on which he was crucified, but usually spending his time flying through the sky like an airplane or chatting with a group of tourists gathered around him. The eerie mermaid from 2011’s “La nature double” – a fish head attached to a human leg and a tail tied to a human torso – can be seen in the background of several recent works. Snowmen are common observers and sometimes actors in various comedies where humans and creatures intertwine.
The recurring cast showcases Pontillolli’s past work in dialogue with his current animal and human acrobatic moods. “I’ve been drawing poetry from the beginning,” he says, “and I did a lot of series before I started working around animals. One was around clouds, another around snowmen. I also went through a Jesus period. Part of what drew me to it was finding an interesting idea, something interesting, and telling its story visually. These old ideas often merge into new ones. Old ideas structure the surroundings of my paintings, making them more alive. For example, the windmill cuts the cloud into pieces as if it were a steak, making the cloud appear to be made of flesh, as if it were alive. Part of it is about mixing materials, and I think of giving life to inanimate objects and imagining them to be the opposite: alive, made of flesh and bones.”
The poetic image is the latest expression of a deep-seated creative impulse. “I’ve always loved drawing, painting, creating shapes… it’s been a part of me for as long as I can remember,” Pontillolli said. Art was a hobby for much of his childhood. “I didn’t grow up around art,” he said. Growing up in a small geological village in the South of France, I rarely had the opportunity to go to museums or exhibitions. In any case, young Bruno wasn’t interested. “As a kid, I was passionate about dinosaurs, nature, etc. I spent as much time as possible exploring the outdoors and interacting with nature.”
I try to remain bizarre and absurd, playing with the rules of nature, bullying them, twisting them and giving a new identity to the things I draw. “
Pontillolli’s move to Paris as a young man changed all that. The gritty world of graffiti artists marking the sides of buildings first caught his attention, and he went on to admire the wonders in the many museums around the City of Lights. “I wanted something different. Discovering the Surrealists and their work was really a brainwave,” he said.
Evening classes provided him with the opportunity to develop his childhood interest in drawing. There, the opportunity to work with live models gave him a strong appreciation for styling. The switch to oil was a welcome challenge, one he fully embraced. He often took lessons from books and copied masterpieces in museums, practicing extensively and instilling a mastery of the medium that is self-evident in the work he creates today.
Oil painting also provided Pontillolli with the opportunity to explore his pursuit of precision in line and color. “I really love and appreciate line drawings, engravings, etchings, all of them, because of their precision—even if I can never achieve the precision that I want, especially in my paintings,” he said. If painting is half of his artistic practice, then sketching
A sketch constitutes another. The paintings are often loose, focusing on movement and shadow. They look like questions: sometimes hesitant, sometimes definite, but necessary to develop the open-ended statements that make up his paintings.
