CRITICAL ESSAYS

The St Peter’s fish bears two dark spots on its sides, one on each flank. According to legend, they are the fingerprints of Saint Peter, left when he drew the fish from the sea to find in its mouth the tribute coin. The mark remained. Ever since, that fish has carried with itself a story that predates it. In Madaudo’s large panel, the John Dory emerges within a red line that outlines its profile with almost ritual precision. Inside, the matter thickens – threads, burn marks,

Sometimes, a fire breaks out in the forest. It catches the leaves, the younger trees, and even the tall, sturdy ones. What happens around it? And what remains after the fire has passed?

Beppe Madaudo’s painting inhabits a zone of friction: not between image and world, but between matter and time. His works emerge where the gaze encounters the resistance of the surface, and where figures withdraw from the familiarity of representation to assume an enigmatic presence.