P  A  U  L      D  E     H  A  A  N 

P A U L   D E   H A A N   

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is the art name of Stefano Agostini, born in Rome, the city where he currently lives and works, on 27 May 1966

Self-taught painter, always obsessed with drawing and painting, after about ten years of fluctuating activity, in 2006 he began to paint continuously and in 2007 he became a member of the “Lorenzo Viani” Cultural Artistic Club of Ostia (RM). He created his first paintings at the age of 12 thanks to the colors given to him by two maternal uncles who wanted to nourish his artistic inclination.

In the period 2006-2012 his painting had impressionist characteristics with an instinctive technique characterized by strong contrasts and very saturated colours. In the same period he began to create still lifes with a perpendicular aerial perspective, a characteristic he maintained until 2020

In the period 2013-2020, the challenge with himself in the continuous search for ever greater detail led him to create natures and portraits bordering on hyperrealism with works highly appreciated by the public and critics. However, despite receiving appreciation, the artist lacked the emotion of painting typical of the impressionists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Since 2020 he has begun to delve into the Alla Prima technique, a seemingly simple technique but which instead first requires an internal revolution and then constant practice especially in the composition and reading of light, a return to the origins but with more awareness and technical knowledge

He has always associated his pictorial activity with the study of texts and works, observed live, of masters of the past, convinced that one cannot be innovative by ignoring the past and not believing in creativity as an end in itself.

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For the artist, a closed circuit exists in which reality, entering through the eyes, undergoes, through the hands, a slow and hidden emotional processing, and then returns to the eyes magically translated into one's own artistic language. A bit like the poet does with words.

Consider painting a very high form of communication, the image that is created must convey emotions, evoke sensations, because if we painted an apple and whoever looked at it saw only an apple, without receiving the emotions used in painting it, we would be good "copyists ”  but not of artists