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PROFILES >
"Lorenzo Mattotti is Italy's grand architect of dreams... Mattotti's
rich imagery introduces sensations and depths of emotion new to
comics - a breath of wind, the heat of fire, the freshness of
woodland, feelings of tribalism, melancholy and peace." "It happens frequently that I find myself thinking in the shape
of splashes of colour. Line is something extremely rigid and a
closed world and this form doesn't interest me any longer." Lorenzo Mattotti (1954- ) is without doubt the most dazzling colourist working in comics today. He is best known in the UK and US for three of his comic albums which have been translated into English - Fires, Murmur and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde - the later title winning him an Eisner Award in 2003. In Europe, he has received wide spread acclaimed for his posters, magazine and fashion illustrations, which regularly appear in Le Monde, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, as well as his many other books for adults and children. Mattotti was born in Bresca, Italy, and studied architecture at Venice University. In 1983 he co-founded (together with Giorgio Carpinteri, Igort, Marcello Jori, Daniele Brolli and Massimo Mattioli) the avant garde comics group Valvoline in Bologna, which tore down the borders between comics, illustration, fashion, architecture and design. "At the beginning we were full of enthusiasm and had a lot of freedom. We were more in touch with each other then and discussed our ideas. Today we are less of a group and more individual authors. But we all want to explore new ideas - it would be boring otherwise... Every story is still a discovery." The publication of Fires in 1986 revolutionised the comic language with its expressive lines and lavish colours and has been inspiring generations of artists ever since. Mattotti currently lives in Paris with Rina and their two children. Interviews: Resources: Reviews: |
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ESSENTIAL READING: |
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"...I got really excited by Lorenzo Mattotti's work because I'd
only seen comics like his in my dreams, things that had that kind
of light and shade, texture, and a knowledgeability about what can
happen inside a rectangle that I associate more readily with great
painters rather than cartoonists. Fires was a breakthrough book." "Fires should be the holy grail
for comic artists. It's an experiment in colour and space, the jagged
lines of the artwork reflecting Mattotti's architectural background
and complementing the story: a dream-like journey to the heart of
darkness within us all." "I had not felt able to convey nature in my work before...
I wanted to communicate my fascination for light, for nature. When
you see a film by Tarkovsky or Herzog - the green, the leaves, the
clouds, you can't believe it. How can you explain these things in
a comic? How is it possible? That was the challenge." |
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"Murmur is about fear, love, and of death and the resulting dissolution
of the ego. It is the triumph of this book that Mattotti illustrates
these concepts." |
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"In a manner that belongs exclusively to comix, Mattotti and Kramsky
have brilliantly used both graphics and narrative to turn Dr
Jekyll & Mr Hyde into a treatise on the nature of the modern age." "Mattotti's art assaults the senses with
its brightness, taking on a positively lurid feature... Its reds
and greens assault the reader even as Hyde explodes onto the town,
with Mattotti twisting and warping the features of all those around
Hyde. Mattotti's art is rich, lush, and like nothing else being published
today." |
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"Swirling bodies in a frenzy of tightrope walkers without redemption,
freaks from an incoherent universe where monsters are never the others,
languish of rubbery and entangled body parts, bars and tramways in
an urban story where the anxiety is so cutting that you smile...
In a way they are all posters for Fellini films." |
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| SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY: | ||
Comic Albums: Art Books: |
Fires
Murmur
Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
Mattotti: Posters