Alessandro Casale was born in Taurasi (AV) on February 3rd 1933. He has been painting for 34 years and his studio is located in Lucca, Via Arcivescovato, 25 (Tel. 0583 - 48062). He has held numerous exhibitions and has actively participated in national and international shows. Many critics have written about his work, some of them are: Elena Bellucci, Alvaro Bongi, Ernesto Borelli, Gastone Breddo, Walter Campani, Dino Carlesi, Carmine Clericuzio, Raffaele De Grada, Isabella Lapi, Gugliermo Lera, Luciano Marcucci, Mario Marzocchi, Nicola Micieli, Dino Pasquali, Francesco Poli, Antonio Possenti, Mario Rocchi, Francesco Saporito and Paolo Sfogli.
Critics and opinions are reported as follows: “Meditation is going on in this blissful enchantment of silence which is represented in this landscape. The outline of what has just appeared seems to dissolve in our inner-being” Francesco Saporito in “La Zattera” May 1971.
“Colour which is dominant in his paintings, fundamental, reaches such great results because it is observed in nature not only has being placed, on his objects, but in its constructive potentiality” Isabella Lapi (Eco d’Arte Moderna, N. 10-11,1973).
“His pictures have appeared to me like sweet rays of light in which secret essential inner sentiments exist” Gastone Breddo. From a letter published in the monograph “Casale”, directed by Nicola Micieli and published by Maria Pacini Fazzi Editore in 1984.
“Some critics, like his friends Nicola Micieli and Dino Carlesi, have
been interested in expressing artistics facts about their province, territory
and region for some time and they have been doing a very good job - the following
stories owe everything to them.
Micieli’s descriptions about Alessandro Casale are extremely sensitive, much
more than collected from a multitude of items which one tends to disregard.
The landscape in “Albeggiare” (Sunrise) (1969) which has such subtle lyricism
would be enough to outline a subtle personality, which is able to perceive the
poetic aspects of the countryside, as Alessandro Casale’s seems to do in the
one Micieli presents in his final work of art” Raffaele De Grada, from the preface
of the monograph “Casale”.
“And the colour? An instrument which brings to life that which is not nature, an enchanting lyric, perhaps to make up for the elegy of hidden things in mind and making it become a shape, linearity and essentiality: sadness creates its own space and become visible, setting down on these desolate plains, where the artist splashes spots of colour in vain and a happiness from the light of the sea which seem to be the last sensation of a hidden terrestrial faith” Dino Carlesi, from Testimonianze in the monograph “Casale”.
A painting becomes a story of subdued elegies, a lyrical dialogue with an almost human and specular nature, so that what is left of a fish which is about to turn into a fossil (L’ultima spiaggia - The last beach 1978) an assimilation in a (landscape made up of rocky and sandy sedimentation) represent an excellent piece of work, an evidence which is strongly felt, almost like a human story. As I said, intimate and subdued elegies. Nobody can miss the synesthesia of silence which introduces the image of Casale’s landscapes. The techniques he uses in his distant fields and stretching horizons, the sovereignty of total light in the material, from it comes out (an unreal and filtering light which turns down the volume and makes the outline of things dissolve. Only the formal elements reconcile the Leopardian intuition of the essence. Silence is functional, because from it we hear distant voices and mysterious sounds which can be heard through meditation and concentration. By reflecting on this, Casale has filtered and praised the visual beauties and immediate emotions, reducing his landscapes to an ideal type of screen which doesn’t reveal one’s intentions but leaves its traces. We then understand the unique collocation of the image between naturalism and abstraction, both present in the objective reference — even if it is a banal imitation - and the pure simplicity of formal colours and shapes of autonomous expressive value”. Nicola Micieli, from the above-mentioned monograph.
“His landscape is - a scene in which one hardly distinguishes the presence of humans who are mixed in with other elements of nature - the painter from Avellino’s favourite theme (Lucchese by adoption) is a landscape in which he is able to emerge completely and revive from it anything that is related to the life of nature and man” Mario Rocchi: in “La Nazione” of October 13th 1998.
“Alessandro Casale’s paintings have all the characteristics which are not appreciated by those who have a superficial and picturesque image of a landscape in mind with a plain atmosphere and a pleasant scenery. And this is not a merit that one should overlook. It means, infact, that his objective is not to describe external reality which he eventually refers to, but to get a refined and deep spiritual sensitivity across with the images he paints; a personal vision of the world which is intelligible, but exposed at a high level of meditated synthetic harmony” Francesco Poli, from a letter to Casale on August 5th 2000.
“Casale’s work represents an essential vision of reality: continuous
reference to nature, to flowers, to the vital changes of the seasons. His favourite
themes are landscapes, the landscape of the sunny and rich soils of his Irpinia,
of his Tuscany, the landscape of his soul” Carmine Clericuzio, from the newspaper
“Il Giornale” from Campania-Avellino, of February 22nd 2001