Critiques and essays on Andrea Benetti's work
On this page, by clicking on the plus “+” to your left you can read the introduction of criticisms, reviews and prefaces dedicated to the artistic work of Andrea Benetti. A part of the texts is taken from catalogs published on the occasion of exhibitions of the Emilian painter. After a few lines of text from the review, or newspaper article, you will find the mention of the author and the title in the lower left corner. For the full reading of the text, you have to click on the text on the right “Read more >”.
The technique an artist employs is never neutral nor indifferent. On the contrary, it carries impressive weight in influencing content or the “what” that one is attempting to express. Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic phrase “the medium is the message” rings particularly true in Andrea Benetti’s painting. Like in the ancient Byzantine mosaics or in medieval paintings, Benetti’s figures are radically flattened on the surface; the third dimension…
Silvia Grandi
Professor and Researcher of Contemporary Art History
Faculty of Humanities · Visual Arts Department
University of Bologna
The experimentation of the new technologies applied to the artistic production generates an unexpected interest in the study of ancient techniques employed by artists of centuries past. The “contrappasso” of ancient and new techniques heralds a new formal message to the public based on bygone customs…
Stefano Papetti
Director of the Civic Museums of Ascoli Piceno
former Professor of History of Modern Art University of Macerata
former Professor of Museology, Art Criticism and Restoration
University of Camerino
In art, fascination with the past is nothing new. This is witnessed by the exploration of movements designated by the prefix “neo”, which in some cases have resulted in a revival, in others, the adoption of old values expressed through contemporary creativity…
Ada Patrizia Fiorillo
Professor of Contemporary Art History
Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Art
Department of Humanities · University of Ferrara
Gombrich dedicates the opening pages of his essential work The Story of Art to the paintings discovered in the nineteenth century in the caves of Altamira, Spain, and in Lascaux, southern France, which represent the tribal origin of the incredible history of Western art. Art is a long and articulated linguistic journey that since the beginning of the last century has undertaken significant detours, and having separated from its norms and statues…
Massimo Guastella
Professor of Contemporary Art History · Unisalento
Scientific manager of labTasc · University of Salento · Lecce
The first man who plotted on a wall an intentional sign, or left an image of his own hand as if the projection of a shadow, changed forever the fate of his own race. That line, engraved rather than painted, that imprint either positive or negative, marked an irreversible difference to the rest of the humans and placed him – to stay there forever…
Paolo Francesco Campione
Professor of History of Art and Museology and History of Collecting
University of Messina
Titled “Abstraction of the Origins”, the exhibition features twenty-five works by Andrea Benetti. Curated by Toti Carpentieri, the show will be inaugurated at 6:30 PM at the Carlo V Castle in Lecce and presents a cycle of recent works that reveal an ancestral lexicon intrinsically connected—at the same time—to the visual languages of the 20th-century European abstract avant-gardes.
Hyperactive within the Italian artistic landscape, Benetti arrives in Lecce also presenting a video work, created in close collaboration with Audrey Coianiz, Frank Nemola, and Saul Saguatti…
Lorenzo Madaro
Professor of History and Methodology of Art Criticism
Academy of Fine Arts of Lecce
Professor of Contemporary Art History
Accademia di Academy of Fine Arts of Brera · Milan
There are many stages in the “archaic” journey, but the true beginning and the path to be considered a real “voyage” into the unconscious of the reborn primitive artist remain undefined. To help the viewer renew their gaze and change the perception of themselves reflected in the initiatory journey of the narrative, the artist employs specific aged supports. The symbols, in the strictest sense of the term, live and intertwine with dance, gestures, animals, and human attire. In this sense, the term “archaic” should not be understood as a mysterious object, nor as…
Christian Parisot
President of the Amedeo Modigliani Legal Archive
VR60768 is the identification code of a rare Paleolithic artifact, but for the non-expert of archeology this alphanumerical sequence might appear to be a “string”; a digital genetic code that can transmit any number of data like, a program, a piece of music or a movie uploaded to the internet; actually, it could be an entire multimedia encyclopedia where different media meld together into an overwhelming knowledge experience…
Giuseppe Virelli
Professor of Art in Europe between the 19th and 20th centuries
Department of Visual Arts
University of Bologna
The University Museum System is hosting Andrea Benetti’s exhibition “preHISTORIA CONTEMPORANEA” at Palazzo Turchi di Bagno—an ideal journey between contemporary and prehistoric art. The exhibition features twelve works by the artist (six drawings on paper and six on canvas) alongside reproductions of Paleolithic artworks, which, despite belonging to different chronological moments in prehistory, were all created by the same species: Homo sapiens. The exhibition includes casts of two painted stones from the Grotta di Fumane, copies of engraved pebbles and blocks from…
Ursula Thun Hohenstein
Professor of Department of Humanities
President of the University Museum System of Ferrara
In the beginning was the name. Not in a theological sense, but in a linguistic one. The act of naming a thing imposes upon it a boundary-the definition-and thus the limits of the name itself. Ti estì? Socrates asks: what is something, what is this thing? The paradigm of the Indo-European language system colonizes the object, which appears within the jurisdiction of the concept rather than in the materiality of its causality. Therefore, the question what is art? is a poorly formulated one…
Stefano Bonaga
Professor of Philosophical Anthropology
University of Bologna
Like space, time has always been considered a fundamental category in which the human condition is inscribed. This mysterious companion of our journey, with whom we have a conflicting relationship of love and hate, of pleasure and nostalgia, of resignation and awareness, confronts us with the harsh reality of its relentless, unforgiving passage. The passing of years, the succession of life’s phases, and the approach of the end place human beings before a single truth: the inevitable boundary of death. If we cannot fight or defeat it, then it is better to make it our ally in the search for eternity, leaving a tangible trace of our existence. Our soul does not exist, but it resists through what we have created or…
Simona Gavioli
Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Art
Academy of Fine Arts of Catanzaro
The Basmati duo (composed of Audrey Coïaniz and Saul Saguatti) has often captured or photographed the architecture of Italian cities, deconstructing and fragmenting them into a multiplicity of viewpoints, highlighting their structural profiles through trajectories and movement vectors—those force-lines with which the Futurists, and Boccioni above all, painted incredible and dazzling “simultaneous visions.” Basmati’s is truly a “rising city,” where buildings and monuments are centrifuged in the gleaming mixer of video, where the rhythm of animation becomes pure flow…
Pasquale Fameli
Researcher in Contemporary Art History
Department of the Arts
University of Bologna
“Lascaux Man created, and created out of nothing, this world of art in which communication between individual minds begins”.
Georges Bataille, Lascaux. The Birth of Art, 1955
In his most pivotal writing, Gillo Dorfles2 stated that in order to understand a work of art within the context of its (and our) time, three fundamental points are needed: sign, gesture and material. In contemporary art, in its various connotations…
Tiziana Fuligna
former Professor of History of Contemporary Art
University of Urbino
It is with great enthusiasm that I have given my approval to host and promote Andrea Benetti’s project “Colors and Sounds of the Origins” within the spaces of the University of Bari, presented to me with great passion by Ms. Stefania Cassano. I strongly believe that contributing to the dissemination of a message of peace and respect for human rights—intrinsic to Andrea Benetti’s primal painting—is an excellent way to promote culture and art. Analyzing the message that the Bolognese artist conveys through his work—and even more explicitly through the Manifesto…
Antonio Felice Uricchio
Rector of the University of Bari Aldo Moro
Two thousand years ago, the cross was the instrument of execution reserved for those guilty of grave crimes. History and archaeology bear witness to men who were crucified. The Shroud of Turin carries the image of a crucified man, clearly displaying wounds at the wrists and the foot. This image corresponds precisely to what the Gospels tell us about Jesus of Nazareth. From a historical perspective, the cross serves as a reminder of the execution of an innocent man. However, for believers, it carries a far greater significance: the unjust death of Jesus, the Son of…
Fiorenzo Facchini
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology ·
University of Bologna
In this article, I’ll address Benetti’s invention of and specific style of Neo Cave Art; a pictorial concept that gave way to a manifesto that he presented at the Venice Biennial in 2009.
At first reading of the manifesto we see that Benetti has constructed a totally new formula, even though it is evident that his work is a mutation of the marvelous cave paintings of thirty to forty thousand years ago…
Gregorio Rossi
Curator of the Museum of Italian Contemporary Art in America
Curator of the “Natura e sogni” pavilion at the 53rd. Venice Art Biennial
Andrea Benetti’s work is rooted in an artistic exploration that merges material experimentation with a deep reflection on humanity’s visual memory. His distinctive style is characterized by a deliberate use of layering, achieved through a mixed-media approach—oil, engraving, plaster, resin, and pigments—that lends his paintings a tactile and three-dimensional quality. This technical choice is not merely aesthetic but conceptual…
Charlotte Paritzky
Director at Z&B Gallery
Co-founder of OBRA Art
In Milan, Spazio Theoria is hosting the solo exhibition of Andrea Benetti (Bologna, 1964), a painter, photographer, and draftsman from Bologna whose artistic research explores and reinterprets the tradition of cave painting. The project Prehistoric Wave, curated by Luciana Apicella, features a body of 20 works created using pigments dating back 40,000 years, discovered in the Grotta di Fumane (Verona). This project is realized in collaboration with the Department of Arts at the University of Bologna and the Department of Biology and Evolution at the University of…
Francesca Interlenghi
Author, Curator and Art Critic
Journalist for Il Giornale dell’Arte
Andrea Benetti’s pictorial work stems from the awareness of the broken harmony, the original yet now severed integration between man and nature. Certainly, in ancient times, there was a primal fear towards the Great Mother; but even when “nature was not perceived as a threat, man respected it with the reverence due to a deity.” Modern man—writes the artist—has “shattered an enchantment and desecrated the sacredness of nature and life.” This diagnosis is now widely acknowledged, yet it must not remain purely theoretical, confined to an abstract and inert disposition…
Carlo Fabrizio Carli
Art critic and historian · Curator of various editions of the Michetti Prize
Member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation “La Quadriennale di Roma”
“Finally I have found my Maestro”, Pablo Picasso was quoted as saying (although proof of this uncertain) in the presence of the enigmatic paintings of Lascaux. Undoubtedly, the fortuitous discovery of the grottoes of Lascaux in Dordogna had a strong impact on the European culture of the 19th century in terms of both visual scenes representing everyday life, as well as the representation of formal language, science and philosophy. These visual sequences gave a glimpse into…
Marzia Ratti
Critic and Art Historian
Former Director of the Civic Museums of La Spezia
Former Director of Cultural Institutions of the City of La Spezia
Upon closer examination, we cannot help but agree with the call for “due respect for nature and for the human being” that Andrea Benetti elaborates on in the first lines—or nearly so—of his Manifesto of Neo-Cave Art, assigning art the duty/right to symbolically return “to its own origins,” since symbols possess “a force equal only to the force of nature itself; that very nature with which we must return to harmony, learning once again to respect and love it.” And we cannot, for a series of motivations that take shape and materialize in the reference to the name of…
Toti Carpentieri
Art critic and historian
During the usual journeys through art, one occasionally encounters phenomena and situations that, through sheer empathy, evoke emotions and compel an unplanned pause along the itinerary. This happened with Andrea Benetti. His work captivates those who, eager for colors and expressive exuberance, have pursued the traces of Miró, Matisse, Klee, Depero, and, in more recent times, Nespolo, Donzelli, and Lodola. It is a feast for the eyes and for the vast archive of iconic imagery stored within the mind. Benetti unfurls his lexicon of codified images and, through their…
Angelo Catano
Professor of Ornamental Sculpture, Techniques and Technologies of Decoration,
History of Illustration and Advertising Graphics
Academy of Fine Arts, Foggia
For Homo sapiens of the Upper Paleolithic, images represent the oldest form of reality projection, fixed onto the walls of caves as a response to vital necessities. For this early modern humanity, horses and aurochs dominate the visual landscape of the most significant Paleolithic caves across Europe, from Lascaux to Altamira, up to the awe-inspiring depictions of rhinoceroses, bison, and horses in the Chauvet Cave, dating back more than thirty thousand years. The need to transfer biological elements from the natural environment into a symbolic dimension led Homo…
Donato Coppola
Professor of Palethnology, Prehistoric Archaeology, and Pre-Classical Civilizations
University of Bari “Aldo Moro”
When and how the Mankind began to manifest symbolic behavior, to transmit knowledge, a specific perception of the world through symbols, signs and artistic performances? These questions have challenged philosophes, anthropologists, sociologists and those interested in Cognitive Sciences. Yet, only a limited category of scientists, namely archeologists and paleoanthropologists dealing with the oldest humans ancestors from southern Africa…
Marco Peresani
Professor of Archaeology of Prehistory
Department of Humanities · University of Ferrara
Cave art appears fully mature since its earliest manifestation. At Chauvet as well as in other caves in Western Europe, large panels with representation of felines, horses, deers and pachyderms of the Ice Age (mammoths and wholly rhinos) were drawn on the walls and enlightened with torches to create suggestive games of shadows and lights. Besides the famous polychrome paintings of Lascaux and Altamira caves, repeatedly admired and cited by Pablo Ruiz Picasso, the earliest art is also…
Matteo Romandini
Professor of Physical Anthropology and Taphonomy
University of di Padova
Carolina Lio
Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Lucca
Everything in the canvases of The Crosses by Andrea Benetti speaks of joy, serenity, nature, and certainty in the Resurrection, despite the fact that the cross is an instrument of torture, of death—of a terrible death, as it was reserved for the most abject criminals, the most ignominious punishment. This evident sense of joy is immediately conveyed through the richness, luminosity, and wide range of colors used by the Artist. It is a joy and serenity that evoke childhood—not a childishness that indulges in fleeting games, but rather the childlike state to which the…
Fernando e Gioia Lanzi
Director and Deputy Director
Museum of the Blessed Virgin of San Luca · Bologna
Andrea Benetti’s “Neo-Cave Art” is not painted on rocks nor on rocky cave walls: it is painted on canvas. So don’t expect an artist with roughened, callused hands, armed with hammer and chisel, sweating and covered with chips and dust. At worst, you might catch him with a few spots of oil, or splashed with henné or paint.
So “Neo-Cave Art” is a sort of fiction, the kind in which– to paraphrase Gorgia – those who let themselves be fooled are all the wiser…
Dario Scarfì
Municipality of Syracuse · Assessorato alle Politiche Culturali e UNESCO
Coordinator of the “Sicily” Pavilion at the 54th. Venice Art Biennial
Among the participants in the Michetti Art Prize, currently taking place in Francavilla al Mare (CH), is the Bolognese artist Andrea Benetti, invited to compete in the “Art and Environment” section with his Neo-Cave paintings. The exhibition, set up at the Michetti Museum under the title “Italian Diorama – Art and Environment”, curated by Carlo Fabrizio Carli, offers a reflection on traditional themes such as landscape and the recovery of ancient cultural roots. However, it does so through a vision projected towards the future, one that necessarily takes into account…
Paola Naldi
Art critic and historian
A long time ago, at the beginning of the last century, there was a small group of artists who, while staying in Paris, reshaped Western art by rediscovering its roots and revolutionary impulses—even within primitive African art. Picasso, Modigliani, and their friends. A great moment in art history, yet they had forgotten the flavors, the scents of that art. Attempting to understand it without grasping its “quinque-sensorial” values and limiting themselves to the visible was quite reductive. Andrea Benetti, a solemn European, has brought his nose, taste buds, and…
Umberto Zampini
Curator and Art Critic
Silvia Grandi
Professor and Researcher of Contemporary Art History
Faculty of Humanities · Visual Arts Department
University of Bologna
Speed: a qualitative adjective or a proper noun? Without delving into or wishing to expand upon Leonardo da Vinci’s treatise on painting, Andrea Benetti bases his work on the study of the internal construction of his compositions, where speed dictates the arrangement of plastic, pictorial, and graphic elements. Like that of the human body or a “machine,” this speed is discreet, sometimes even imperceptible… yet it remains ever-present, imparting to the artwork those lines of force that are an integral part of his artistic life.
The artist positions himself before…
Christian Parisot
President of the Amedeo Modigliani Legal Archive
The Legislative Assembly presents to the public the exhibition Timeless Shapes by Andrea Benetti, a Bolognese artist who, together with curator Elisa Mazzagardi, leads the audience on an ideal bridge between the origins of prehistoric art and the expressive language of contemporary art. The earliest forms of artistic representation were not created for aesthetic or decorative purposes; their meaning must be sought in the realm of symbolism, in the creation of shapes, paintings, and graffiti aimed at warding off hostile natural forces and influencing events through…
Emma Petitti
President of the Legislative Assembly of the Emilia-Romagna Region
There is a golden thread that connects Andrea Benetti to Venice, Italy. In 2009 the Emilian artist presented his Manifesto of Neo-Cave Art (Manifesto dell’arte Neorupestre) at the 53rd Venice Art Biennial. In his manifesto, Benetti considers the idea of aesthetics which is shaped upon the first forms of human expression created by prehistoric man, carved symbols and marks, and geometric abstract shapes. The artist’s work is replete with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic…
Journalist and writer
In 1879, de Sautuola and his daughter claimed and announced that inside the Altamira Cave, near Santander in Spain, there were paintings created by prehistoric humans. Prehistory scholars laughed at the notion—and they kept laughing for at least twenty years. Then, Abbé Breuil and Cartailhac visited the site, and laughter turned into astonishment: the paintings were authentic, undoubtedly the work of prehistoric humans, and in terms of beauty, they had nothing to envy from any modern painting. Astonishment, at least on the surface, is an attitude that has little scientific value…
Gregorio Rossi
Curator of the Museum of Italian Contemporary Art in America
Former Curator of the Nature and Dreams Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale
In the presentation text for a previous exhibition (Colors and Sounds of the Origins, 2013), I had the opportunity to discuss the graphic simplifications of the images that animate Andrea Benetti’s “Neo-Rupestrian” canvases, highlighting how his works oscillate between an archaic past—imploding into the expressivity of primitive man—and a hyper-technological future. His stylized patterns of cars, airplanes, and scooters merge with the silhouettes of horses, buffalo…
Silvia Grandi
Professor and Researcher of Phenomenology of Contemporary Art
Faculty of Letters and Philosophy – Department of the Arts · University of Bologna
Art follows the ways of life and changes according to the eras in which it is created; today’s world demands immediate usability, it devours images and information, and the speed with which a figurative representation can be assimilated becomes the discriminating factor for its acceptance or rejection. However, if the concept expressed through a visual resolution is linked to a fast-paced and often chaotic world, the reflection on that concept must instead embrace the slowness that culture requires, so that it does not become a fleeting and superfluous idea. When…
Former Researcher at the Amedeo Modigliani Institut Archives Légales Paris-Rome
Former Curator at the Amedeo Modigliani Documentation and Research Center
“The world existed before man and will exist after man, and man is merely an opportunity for the world to organize some information about itself.” This is a quote from Italo Calvino, taken from a 1967 interview with the Gazette de Lausanne. A reflection that, at first glance, seems to establish a radical hierarchy of importance—the impermanence of man versus the permanence of the world, of reality, of nature. Yet, upon closer examination, it actually attributes to man a role that is anything but secondary. It is the human gaze that allows the world to “organize…
Luciana Apicella
Journalist and Art Critic
Cesare Brandi theorized the formulation of the image and the constitution of the object—two crucial elements in understanding an artist’s work and creative process. The gap between these two aspects represents the key to interpreting both art and the artist. When we observe Benetti’s works, it is as if we are transported into the very heart of this great alchemical workshop that is the artist’s mind. When Dürer engraved Melencolia I, he captured the profound relationship between art, the artist, the philosopher, the demiurge, and the alchemical process of transmuting elements. Similarly, Zola described the artist as a sentiment that interprets reality. By combining…
Francesco Elisei
Curator of the Pavilion of the Republic of Moldova at the 52nd Venice Biennale
Curator of the IILA/Costa Rica Pavilion at the 53rd and 54th Venice Biennale
I recently became acquainted with the contemporary art of Andrea Benetti, which is housed in numerous museums and private collections and has been showcased at the Venice Art Biennale. I was able to grasp its poetic essence, its powerful communicative force, and its profound admiration for the primordial universe. He is a relentless artist, resolute in his dissent and rejection of the modern world, remarkably lucid in his exaltation of abstràhere as an exemplum vitae, and incisively cynical in his reclamation of the status quo. Contemplating his works felt like…
Professor at Primo Levi University · Art Critic and Historian
Good afternoon, everyone. Due to a health issue, I am unable to attend in person, but I still wish to express my appreciation for Andrea Benetti’s exhibition. I was truly fascinated by this original project in which the artist has reinterpreted and reimagined, through his artistic vision, some examples of cave painting discovered in the Fumane Cave, dating back to the Paleolithic period—over 40,000 years ago. What makes this project truly unique, however, is the use of chromatic elements derived from archaeological remnants of that era—such as soil, ochre, and…
Francesca Barracciu
Former Undersecretary of State for Cultural Heritage and Tourism
The fight against gender-based violence has become an issue that can no longer be overlooked, given the scale and severity of a phenomenon that affects women worldwide—a consequence of a society that, in many areas, can still be defined as patriarchal. Violence perpetrated by men affects women of all ages, backgrounds, and socio-cultural levels, as has been evident for years from the work of Anti-Violence Centers across the country. These centers provide shelter and support to women on their path to escaping violence and reclaiming their autonomy.
Many initiatives…
Susanna Zaccaria
Former Councillor for Equal Opportunities
Municipality of Bologna
The evocative charm of the ancient Grave of the Caves and the magic of the underground pathways awaken the most archaic part of our human memory, bringing to the surface the traces of those ancestors who sought shelter underground and among the cliffs, escaping the violence of the elements and the threat of wild beasts. In doing so, they imbued these impervious places with a primordial sense of dwelling, of hearth, of home. In those remote times, painting served as a means of communication, enabling the transmission of fundamental knowledge and life experiences across generations. Stylized figures and amorphous faces, archetypal images, and signs—now incomprehensible…
Silvia Godelli
Former Councillor for Cultural Affairs
Region of Puglia
Among the refined pleasures that La Dolce Vita can offer, art—particularly contemporary art—is certainly one of the most exquisite. There are few living Italian painters capable of evoking profound emotions and recognized internationally for their mastery. One of them is undoubtedly Andrea Benetti, who in 2006 presented the Manifesto of Neo-Cave Art at the Venice Biennale. In a world overwhelmed by consumerism and materialism, superficiality and falsehood, the artist, who was shaped by Bologna’s cultural environment and whose works are now featured worldwide, revives…
Chiara Giacobelli
Journalist and Writer
Art and nature. This is the combination proposed by the project Neo-Cave Painting. The Castellana Caves—one of the natural wonders of our land of Bari—will host the works of Andrea Benetti, creator and signatory of the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, presented at the 2009 edition of the Venice Biennale. “Let us start again from that cave painting, which primitive man—far wiser than us—created on rocky walls to win the favor of supernatural forces,” urges Maestro Benetti. “For its part,” Benetti adds, “this is what art can do. It is certainly a symbolic new beginning, but…
Francesco Schittulli
Former President of the Province of Bari
I was taken by surprise upon seeing these small creations—small only in size. I had known Andrea for some time, and I had been following his work with interest for a while. What struck me about him was his passion, which transcended the present—he was already living in tomorrow. I admired his pictorial language, that underlying nemesis of the passionate artist, but those small panels he showed me left me in awe. I felt as if I were Diego Martelli when he first saw the early Macchiaioli panels by Cabianca, Signorini, and Fattori. Astonishment floods the mind, sparking…
Roberto Sabatelli
Former Director of the Amedeo Modigliani Art Gallery
Alice Amadei
Art Critic
The unprecedented solo exhibition by Benetti features a substantial number of works—32 in total—on canvas, each highly captivating not only for the technique employed but also for the message of love and peace contained in every single painting. The compositional structure embraces primitive forms that evoke the earliest civilizations. His canvases, rigorously prepared with natural pigments and substances such as cocoa, are adorned with signs and symbols imbued with a playful essence—joyful, stripped of their three-dimensional effect, designed to transport the viewer…
Carmelita Brunetti
Art historian, critic, and journalist
The need to return to the origins of form and communication is the gravitational center of Andrea Benetti, the protagonist of the exhibition curated by Toti Carpentieri, currently on display in the halls of Castello Carlo V in Lecce. He accomplishes this by reviving the “Primal Abstraction”, whose fundamental principles the Bolognese artist claims as his own, translating them into a uniform style that blends painting and engraving, cloisonnism and chromatic vibrancy. He engraves the plastered surface laid on the canvas and tones it with natural substances (oil…
Marinilde Giannandrea
Journalist, Curator, and Art Critic
Andrea Marrone
Writer
Colored earths, rusts, and engravings give life to contemporary petroglyphs, whose subjects are no longer hunting trophies or battles between early humans and animals, but rather the most celebrated symbols of our era: cars, airplanes, trains, the legendary Vespa 50 Special—means of transport that enable the 3.0 human to be constantly in motion. Yet, Andrea Benetti uses them to take us back in time, as he so often does through his Neo-Cave Art. Based on the revival of primitive techniques, Benetti’s art echoes the style of ancient cave engravings, paying homage to…
Ilaria Schipani
Curator and Art Critic
From 1938 to the present day, since Professor Franco Anelli discovered our magnificent caves, the Grave has been the setting for countless events: theatrical performances, musical concerts, film screenings, book presentations, religious ceremonies, and much more. I take this opportunity to remind you that for months now, the Dante-inspired show “Hell in the Cave,” the largest resident performance in Puglia, has been taking place in the Grave. Over the years, among the many cultural events that have been organized, it seems that a painting exhibition has never been…
Former Mayor of Castellana Grotte (BA)
The Neo-Cave painting of the Bolognese artist Andrea Benetti arrives in Rome, alongside works by the masters of the 20th century. The exhibition, titled “Portraits d’artistes”, features paintings by Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio De Chirico, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Max Jacob, Mario Schifano, Carlo Corsi, Jules Pascin, Guido Cadorin, and, starting from November 11—when it will be inaugurated at Palazzo Taverna—also “Prehistoric Woman”, a work by the Bolognese artist. The retrospective is curated by the president of the Modigliani Institut, Professor Christian Parisot…
Andrea Rinaldi
Journalist
The event organized a few days ago, sponsored by A.N.F.E. Marche (National Association of Emigrant Families), was a great success with the public and featured the presence of the world-renowned artist Andrea Benetti in the city. The meeting, strongly desired by the president of the Marche-based moral institution, Professor Rocco Fazzini, was held at the association’s operational headquarters in Piazza del Popolo and was titled “Ascoli Travertine in Art.” Benetti is especially well known for Neo-Cave Art, which he describes as “the most fascinating way in which matter…
Emidio Premici
Journalist
Opening on Saturday at 6 PM, Faces Against Violence is the title of the photographic exhibition by Bologna-based artist Andrea Benetti, which will occupy the Manica Lunga of Palazzo D’Accursio until December 13. The exhibition, dedicated to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, is sponsored by the Municipality and the Region. “I am thrilled about this initiative, which, through eighteen gazes, will prompt reflection with just a glance,” explained Susanna Zaccaria, councilor responsible for combating violence. “The eyes photographed by…
Zoe Pederzini
Journalist
Every form of art is the result of a complex synthesis aimed at capturing and expressing the indivisible element—an emotion, a state of mind. The graffiti etched onto cave walls by primitive humans represent the earliest form of communication, conveying not only emotions but also information. The evolution of the species led to a separation between emotions and information. Modern humans distinguish between art and information, despite using the same means—image, sound, and writing. This division took place during the Industrial Revolution, driven by the belief that…
Former Cultural Commissioner of Castellana Grotte (BA)
Approximately nine months have passed since Andrea Benetti, intrigued by the cultural significance of the Castellana Caves—beyond their purely scientific and touristic aspects—proposed this project: an exhibition of Neo-Cave painting inside an ancient cavern. At first, the idea seemed rather unusual and complex, but I instinctively expressed my enthusiasm for the proposal and committed myself to making it a reality. It is evident that the Grave has never been inhabited by humans, nor are there any anthropomorphic signs within the Castellana Caves, yet the concept of…
Former President of the Castellana Caves
President of the City Council of Castellana Grotte (BA)
The Hercules Hall of Palazzo d’Accursio is hosting, until the end of the month, the exhibition Colors and Sounds of the Origins. The works of artist Andrea Benetti, accompanied by the music of Frank Nemola, engage in a dialogue between past and present, guiding humanity toward a rediscovery of the senses. Since Saturday, April 13, visitors in Bologna can explore the contemporary art exhibition Colors and Sounds of the Origins at the City Hall (Palazzo d’Accursio, Piazza Maggiore 6). This project stems from the collaboration between Bologna-born painter Andrea Benetti…
Maria Daniela Zavaroni
Journalist and Art Critic
If images alone are no longer enough to attract even non-experts into the artistic sphere, then art must reinvent itself and open up, revealing its latent potential. This is precisely the case with the exhibition that opened yesterday in the Hercules Hall of Palazzo d’Accursio, a medieval municipal building now transformed into the vibrant core of some of Bologna’s most significant cultural initiatives. Colors and Sounds of the Origins—as the title suggests—expresses a clear intent: a connection that originates in painting but integrates sound as an intrinsic…
Paola Pluchino
Journalist and Art Critic
On November 25, 1960—the date of the assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists from the Dominican Republic, murdered on the orders of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo—an important global observance was born: the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, officially recognized by a UN resolution in 1999. It is a significant date, commemorated annually by many women and men alike, not only as a reminder of the ultimate act of violence—murder—but also of many other, more insidious forms of violence, ranging from all types…
Silvia Grandi
Professor and Researcher of Phenomenology of Contemporary Art Faculty of Arts and Philosophy · Department of the Arts · University of Bologna
Rediscovering the archaic to give new meaning to the present. This is the underlying poetics of the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, conceived by Bologna-based artist Andrea Benetti, whose works are on display in Bari until March 26, 2014, in the central hall of the former Palazzo delle Poste, as part of the exhibition Colors and Sounds of Origins. The vernissage, held on February 28, featured an evocative musical and vocal performance by Lecce-born trumpeter Frank Nemola, a well-known collaborator of Vasco Rossi. As Benetti explains in his Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, he…
Enzo Garofalo
Journalist
Andrea Benetti, born in Bologna in 1964, has been successfully expressing his ideas and his painting within the contemporary art scene for several years. In addition to exhibiting in highly prestigious venues, nearly a dozen museums and significant collections now permanently house his works. In 2006, he conceived the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, which was officially presented in 2009 at the 53rd Venice Biennale, in the Nature and Dreams pavilion at Ca’ Foscari University. In July 2010, he was invited to the 61st edition of the Premio Michetti, the prestigious international…
Simone Soldera
Journalist and writer
The Grand Hotel Majestic “già Baglioni” in Bologna opened its doors yesterday to Andrea Benetti, creator of the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, for the press presentation of “B.P. Before Present.” This exhibition, curated by Simona Gavioli, will allow visitors to admire his works from May 18 to June 27, inside one of the most representative hotels in the city. The event was also attended by Giancarlo Tonelli, General Director of Confcommercio Ascom Bologna; Celso De Scrilli, Vice President of Confcommercio and President of Federalberghi Bologna; and Tiberio Biondi, Director…
Giuliana Di Gioia
Journalist
The Magician in the atelier of invention takes on the burden of wit. It carries the flavor of a distant tradition, invention, and absolute creation, a reference in the paths of the oblivion of imagination, of worlds and ancestral forms. It is the wheel of time, a centrifuge of stories both near and far. The artist transposes premises, divination is complete, and prehistory is invoked. With a dreamlike judgment, he tempers the painting, moving by inertia, through surreal occurrences. His hand imprints the primordial matter: stone surfaces, sharp and blurred marks…
Art critic and historian
A Bolognese artist who has made it to the Biennale, the Michetti Prize, the Modigliani Archives, and now to Rome, exhibiting alongside De Chirico, Modigliani, Andy Warhol, Schifano, and Keith Haring. Andrea Benetti is 46 years old, born, living, and working in Bologna. His city, which he has no intention of leaving, is where he paints his almost sculpted canvases, using casts, coffee dyes, henna, and cocoa mixed with acrylics or oil paints. His Neo-Cave art—so named in reference to the graffiti of prehistoric man—expresses the need to start anew, depicting the new…
Journalist and Writer
Andrea Benetti, a Bolognese artist who has exhibited multiple times in galleries and museums overseas, commemorates September 11 at the American university in his own city. A fascinating intertwining of sensitivity and borders, and a creative gesture meant to inspire a rebirth from the rubble—to make a clean slate of violence and start anew, placing the only possible antidote at stake: peace. Through the power of art, Johns Hopkins University on Via Belmeloro, together with the “Luciano Finelli” Association, Friends of Johns Hopkins University, has chosen to…
Luciana Cavina
Journalist and Art Critic
Andrea Benetti’s exhibition “Neo-Cave Painting” remains open for visits until Sunday, September 25, set in a highly fitting and naturally evocative location: a cave. The setting becomes both a companion and an assistant to the intense visual impact of the artist’s painting. Benetti has chosen the Castellana Caves as the starting point for his imaginative journey into the future of humanity, beginning with primeval man. This is precisely his point of reference, as he evokes the movements of our ancestors and translates them onto modern canvases resistant to the humidity…
Marilena Rodi
Journalist
Andrea Benetti’s artistic journey is one of those intriguing stories that bring ideas and talents to the forefront in unconventional ways. Born in Bologna in 1964, Benetti still lives and works in his hometown, but for the past decade, his works have been traveling the world, spreading the vision of Neo-Cave Art. This artistic philosophy and poetics were formally defined in a manifesto, presented in 2006 at Ca’ Foscari in Venice. Now, it is once again being showcased, this time at Sala d’Ercole in Palazzo d’Accursio, with the exhibition “Colors and Sounds of the…
Paola Naldi
Art Critic and Historian
In the era of digital bits, the nature of the artwork has changed. New technologies have revolutionized not only the way we perceive the external world but, above all, the way the artist engages with it. If, in the 20th century, the museum was the place where art lived and sparked debate, today, the internet has become the meeting point of a vast virtual agora, where everyone takes part in the artistic creation. But there is more: this Big Brother of knowledge puts the artist himself at stake first and foremost. It is a new way of seeing, of conceiving life and…
Professor of “Theories and Techniques of New Media” ·
Until September 16, a selection of 42 works by the Bolognese artist Andrea Benetti will be on display at the Montevergini Civic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Ortigia. The exhibition, titled “Symbolism in Neo-Cave Painting,” is curated by Dario Scarfì, Gregorio Rossi, and Sabrina Collina. These 42 large-scale works highlight what can be considered a neo-symbolism, where stylized hominids, embryonic forms, and autonomous elements coexist—almost isolated in their inner essence. Andrea Benetti is taking his painting back to its origins, bringing it once again into caves…
Cetty Piccione
Journalist
“At the dawn of humanity, even before inventing writing, man felt the need to communicate, to leave a trace of himself in the world […] That man interacted daily with the sun, the earth, water, and the sky, harmoniously integrating himself into nature; and even when nature did not pose a threat, he respected it with the reverence due to a deity, fully aware of his own limitations […] We must return to the origins of humankind and its primordial art to rebuild a new world, one in which respect for nature and human dignity is finally at the center of human will…
Curator and Art Critic
Art has never been so ancient and contemporary at the same time. “Neo-Cave Painting,” as its creator Andrea Benetti aptly calls it, brings primitive forms—bison, horses, and hunting scenes, like those found in Lascaux in France or Altamira in Spain—beyond the boundaries of time, making them pop. This is the result of Benetti’s originality, for whom true avant-garde lies in the ability to look back. Painting thus returns to its origins, to the primal need to leave a mark on rock. Benetti creates a sort of conceptual short circuit by choosing to exhibit his work inside…
Journalist
A world premiere in the most evocative setting: with “Neo-Cave Painting,” a solo exhibition by Bologna-based artist Andrea Benetti—a leading figure in contemporary art and the creator and signatory of the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, presented in 2009 at the 53rd Venice Biennale—the Castellana Caves make their debut as a unique venue in the art scene. The exhibition, set up in the Grave, the entrance cavern of the Caves, is curated by Massimo Guastella, professor of Contemporary Art History and scientific director of the LabTASC at the University of Salento. It will be…
Emanuele Caputo
Journalist
That attempt to narrate the world on walls, on bare rock, through a stylized sketch— a visual impression that primitive man felt the need to render with essential and immediate tools— is more than a rudimentary artistic instinct; it is a symbol of a healthier and more intelligent relationship with the world than the one we experience today. This is the philosophy of Andrea Benetti (born in 1964, from Bologna), the creator of Neo-Cave Painting, who has been successfully expressing his art for years. In addition to having exhibited in prestigious venues, his works are…
Journalist and Art Critic
From the faded images of history books, cave paintings will once again be admired in their most natural setting: the walls of a cave.
And what better location than the Castellana Caves to evoke the ancient caverns where, more than nine thousand years ago, humans entrusted painting with the task of passing down their culture, from hunting techniques to religious rituals? It is called “Neo-Cave Painting”, the project through which Bolognese painter Andrea Benetti will bring back to life, from tonight until September 25, the mystery and allure of parietal art inside the…
Journalist
Art, an organic barometer of the fundamental intuitions of being and an external sign of its destiny: a general definition that may seem infinitely flexible, yet in reality proves to be extremely demanding in existential practice and can truly be applied only to a very small number of “adventurers of the heart, mind, and palette.” How do we recognize these creators of a rare kind? Through their missionary commitment within a cosmic vision of energy, whose operative goal is the identification of being and its placement in harmony with the surrounding nature and its…
Roberto Sabatelli
Former Director of the Amedeo Modigliani Art Gallery
The aim of this international exhibition is to provide the most comprehensive possible interpretation of the mirror phase, through various figurative and abstract, interpretative or photographic aspects, in which the artist reflects both their own experiences and those of their real or imaginary models. In 2010, the fury of images seems to have taken shape in China, mirroring Europe—as if Chinese artists had reinvented photographic portraiture by integrating contemporary techniques such as acrylic painting and the projection of the artwork onto emulsified canvas…
Christian Parisot
President of the Amedeo Modigliani Legal Archive
In the diverse humanity that crowds the emerging arenas of art, Andrea Benetti represents hope—true hope. He is a painter. An outdated term in a context where painting—that made with brush and soul—is often pushed to the sidelines. And it is precisely for this reason that he embodies hope; cultured and intelligent, he has understood that the future does not lie in the medium, but in the search for poetic meaning. If the medium consists of a purple crocodile hanging from a terrace, he dissociates himself from it, as I believe is only right. In this world, he seeks his own world and his own way of being. He does not allow himself to be swayed by fleeting trends…
Gregorio Rossi
Curator of the Museum of Italian Contemporary Art in America
Former Curator of the “Nature and Dreams” Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale
The Bolognese artist Andrea Benetti, author of the “Neo-Cave Art Manifesto”, shares his story in an interview with monitorARTI. Born in 1964, he studied at the Art High School of Bologna, cultivating an interest in both art and music. His painting, which blends oil colors with natural elements such as cocoa, coffee, hibiscus, and henna, draws inspiration from the marks that primitive humans traced on cave walls—whether to invoke the divine or simply out of an innate need for expression.
Andrea Benetti has exhibited in prestigious exhibitions, and his works are…
Antonella Gallone
Journalist and Art Critic
Contemporary art manifests itself as a powerful reflection of our time, exploring current themes and issues with a critical gaze that often challenges the boundaries of acceptability. It does not merely represent visual reality but transforms into a dynamic dialogue with the past, examining and questioning the values of society. Through this prism, art is not only a witness but also a critic of the contemporary, serving as a mirror for the ever-changing conditions of the world. Each artwork, therefore, becomes a living commentary, a fabric of reflections that weaves…
Journalist
“Primal Abstractism” in the works of Andrea Benetti is on display at the Castle of Charles V in Lecce: today at 6:30 PM marks the opening of the solo exhibition of the Bolognese artist. His artistic language, as curator Toti Carpentieri notes in the catalog, is “composed of forms and images (both allusive and illusory), extra-dimensional, with sharp contours and a flat chromatic application.” This exhibition serves as a deeper exploration of that “primal abstractism” which has long characterized and defined the artist’s work. A wanderer and nomad by both vocation and…
Lorenzo Madaro
Professor of History and Methodology of Art Criticism
Academy of Fine Arts of Lecce
Professor of Contemporary Art History
Academy of Fine Arts of Brera · Milan
The dramatic attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001—an event that disrupted global political balances—is commemorated at Johns Hopkins University with a special exhibition centered on the works of Bolognese artist Andrea Benetti and Lanfranco Di Rico. Four artworks, created through the assemblage of various materials (plastic, wood, paper, metal, pastels), are displayed in the atrium of the student center. “Obviously, this is a tribute to the victims,” explains Benetti. “But we made an effort to go further, also considering the pain of their friends…
Journalist and art critic
Andrea Benetti’s Neo-Cave painting invites us to take a step back to the origins of our human species, to the primordial instincts of man, and to the necessity of a closer relationship with nature and the most simple and immediate forms of communication—among which artistic expression stands out as perhaps the most distinctive trait that connects us to primitive humans. In particular, Cro-Magnon man (or Homo sapiens sapiens), to whom the exhibition’s title is dedicated, was the first among our prehistoric ancestors to use painting as a means of expression….
Art Critic and Curator
Until April 30, at Palazzo d’Accursio, the works of the Bolognese artist—who was a protagonist of the 53rd Venice Biennale with the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto—meet the music of Vasco Rossi’s collaborator: “I draw inspiration from the art of primitive man, as a symbol of returning to the origins, to start anew with a future not solely built on domination.” His works are exhibited in the Art Collection of the Quirinale, at the avant-garde Museion in Bolzano, at MamBo in Bologna, and at the Glass Palace in New York. After his Neo-Cave art—his reinterpretation of the symbolism…
Journalist and Art Critic
“From Rock to Canvas – Travertine in Neo-Cave Painting” is the title of the exhibition by Andrea Benetti, opening today (running until April 20) in the splendid halls of Palazzo dei Capitani. The inauguration is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 6:00 PM. The special guest will be Frank Nemola, musician and collaborator of Vasco Rossi, who will perform a musical piece. The artist Andrea Benetti (Neo-Cave Art) has also collaborated with ANFE for the presentation of his work Giovanni Paolo II to Pope Benedict XVI during an official audience marking the anniversary of ANFE’s founding. Curated by the director of Ascoli’s museums, Stefano Papetti, the exhibition will…
Journalist
It was a mild October Sunday when I first met Andrea Benetti, a contemporary artist, in his atelier—a beautiful early 20th-century house on the Osservanza hill in Bologna. Tall, imposing, yet kind, he stood as a true artist against his vast artistic production, which, covering the walls, seemed to envelop him, almost shielding him from the bright reality beyond the graceful mullioned windows of his home. He immediately introduced me to Barbara, his charming partner, who understands very well (by sharing in it, rather than enduring it) what the “artist’s life”…
Stefano Ricciardi
Writer
Since the dawn of time, painting has narrated the era, culture, and society to which it belongs. Painting and drawing were the first forms of communication through which humans began to express themselves, their emotions, ideals, and their relationship with the world. Since the earliest times, even before developing a structured language, humankind felt the need to represent the surrounding reality through engravings and drawings, both to convey thought and to give free rein to the fundamental questions concerning the world and their own presence on Earth. Thus, the…
Art Critic and Curator
Presenting Maestro Andrea Benetti in Bari, my city—the place I immediately chose as the venue to host his exhibition and introduce the endemic message conveyed by his works—is an immense honor for me. A long-cherished dream has come true, one for which I have passionately worked for many months. In this historical period—one in which Art and Culture, in general, face only cuts and receive minimal funding, mainly from private sources—I wish, above all else, to thank the companies that have supported us on this extraordinary journey, first and foremost AMGAS of Bari…
Stefania Cassano
President of the Cultural and Artistic Promotion Association “AnimARSi”
There exists a history before History, in which events and experiences—besides being transmitted in purely oral form, of which no trace remains—are handed down visually and materially through cave paintings and megalithic constructions: History seeking an opening and manifesting itself through forms. Time and Space permeate that matter to which the human being, continuously since its appearance, has given ever-changing forms in a ceaseless and restless cycle. As if the tension of a spirit imprisoned in a material body wished to reveal to the entire world its…
Corrado Rozzi
Engineer and researcher of phenomena related to primitive art
For Benetti, the new for the sake of the new holds no interest. His is a profound exploration of the sensitivity of the human soul—painting, photography, and music interact and interpenetrate in an integrated form of art, a legacy of the paths he has traveled in his life. This is the reality of today: formal painting, that is, easel painting, increasingly draws breath from a multisensory and interactive interpretation. The roads leading to stylistic perfection—not to beauty, mind you, as beauty is an extremely personal concept—must be sought in everything that brings…
Roberto Sabatelli
Former Director of the Amedeo Modigliani Art Gallery
At the dawn of life, that frightened and hungry man traced signs on the rocky wall—signs that meant life or death, in a lugubrious dance for survival. If this is true, that primordial man, covered only in animal hide, was engaging with creation in an ancestral and sublime prayer. All of this lies deep within our being: the sign, the dream, the prayer to a god, hunger, and fear. I see all of this in the works of Andrea Benetti—the primordial essence of creation, the rhythm of the sign, the toil of daily life, the longing for fresh air.
It is rare today to find an…
Curator of the Museum of Italian Contemporary Art in America
The first time I saw Andrea Benetti’s artwork, I was struck by how much energy that kind of bas-relief painting produced, as it intelligently and carefully manipulates the very origin of painting, that is, cave painting.
The figures on the canvas can act as isolated symbols; items in an archaeological catalogue, or they can be included in a dynamic context…
Art curator
If there is such a thing as “bibliosensuality”, it was born in caves, within symbols distilled down to the sign itself—anticipating, with pigments that have survived a mythical time, the intimacy of the act of writing, the marginalia of every story, and the dawn of a collective unconscious. Before the Ebla tablets—that Sumerian lexicon carved in cuneiform characters resembling footprints left by mysterious bird-like walks—we were not all writers; rather, we were draftsmen. And cave painting constitutes a vast, partially decoded yet still enigmatic library that has…
Journalist
