Biography

If you would ask Alessandro Curadi if he was first attracted by music or painting, he would be amazed himself and surprised to verify the simultaneity of these two passions or needs, at the point that they have assumed one way only, that’s why he follows and catches facets of the sound of music, and tells the music to the sound of facets, and this happens even in the portraits not related to musicians, where you can perceive a musical tendency, a prosody to the rhythm of the color or the text. Music and paintings speak the same language, they travel in the same direction, such that it seems that you can almost hear these musical paintings. On this track of symbiotic exchange there is almost no difference: the saxophone’s vibrations and those of a deep blue, the warm touch of a guitar and a sunny yellow, but also stronger and uncommon emotional combinations, that make vibrating and alive these notes and color harmony, Curadi describes and paints with competent minimalism, almost suggesting the lines, persistently chasing what is escaping, that you can get with the emotion only. Exploring the lines of a face and its inner roads, the hidden corners, is like traveling inside the man, in the events of the past, in the plot of the soul. Besides the work in the studio, Curadi paints portraits of the musicians exactly when they play: music and painting in a single performance, in a double live, with all the magic of creating without a safety net, live during a concert, impalpable acoustic sensations translate into visual, physical spots, the abstract physicality of the sound materializes, combining with water, light, and color, in ever new snapshots, synthesis of sound and vision. It’s a unique instant, live portraits strike for their happy “impression”: few touches, few traits, and a face becomes alive. It’s peculiar the attempt, the ambition, and even the madness to give sound to a painting or to give a face to a sound. 

What color is music? 

What sound has a painting? 

We don’t care about the answer, we prefer to leave the question pending, and welcome the incitement.

 Enjoy! 

Alessandro Curadi was born in 1967 in Milano, where he still lives and works. He attended the illustration and graphic course at Castello Sforzesco Art School in Milan. In 1999 he became a member of the A.I.A. – Italian Association of Watercolorists. Since 2000 he devoted himself to the live portraiture of performers during concerts. This peculiarity to be able to paint in uncertain conditions in terms of light and space, in the middle of a crowd, in almost acrobatic poses to keep in balance sheets, water, and colors, is the author’s style that makes Curadi’s work unique and unmistakable. As a “pictorial reporter” and music enthusiast, Alessandro Curadi portrayed the most important musicians of the international jazz and rock landscape, cooperating also with the Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali of the Dal Verme Theatre in Milan, as an illustrator for the theatre program of the classical music in 2007/2008. He designed the CD covers of the singers Max De Aloe and Nicola Mingo. Together with Mario Marzi, the first saxophone of the Filarmonica Della Scala, he created several illustrations for the book “Il Saxofono” (Zecchini Edition). In 2013 his portraits of Franz DiCioccio, Patrick Djivas and Franco Mussida painted live at the Lugano Festival have been published in the LP boxset “PFM in Classic”. As a live portraitist, he attended many festivals and solo concerts. He cooperated with the magazines Jazzit, What’s Up, Run and LYF as an illustrator, and with the American portal www.allaboutjazz.com for visual interpretation for several concerts. Music has a leading role not only in the “live” production but also in the big works that have been realized in the studio, on canvas, or on paper. During festivals like Milanesiana, Festival della Letteratura di Mantova, BookCity etc. he painted live portraits of several writers, movie directors, actors, etc. Since 2019, he cooperates with the Milan gallery Maiocchi 15. 

Since 2022 he has been collaborating with the online magazine Coolmag.it for which he reviews concerts with paintings and writings