Nicola De Maria

1954, Foglianise, Benevento, Italy

A painter-poet and master of colour, Nicola De Maria is one of the most lyrical figures of the Italian Transavanguardia. His works are fields of visual and spiritual energy in which painting and words merge within a metaphysical dimension. Every gesture becomes a ritual, and every colour a vibration of the soul. He works on canvas, paper and often directly on walls, transforming the surrounding space into a sacred and cosmic place.

His art moves away from narrative to evoke an invisible yet perceptible reality made of light, emotion and memory. Writing, a recurring presence in his works, becomes a poetic trace that completes the pictorial language.

Nicola De Maria

Regno dei Fiori – Immortalità Amorosa, 2001/2002
Mixed media on canvas, 78 × 67 cm
Front and reverse

In this work, De Maria constructs an intense and pulsating visual pattern made of coloured marks, lines, dots and gestures layered over a dense, textured white background. Each pictorial element seems to possess its own rhythm, like a hymn to the joy of existence. Painting becomes a sensory, physical and musical experience.

The reverse of the canvas is itself part of the artwork. It bears handwritten phrases, including Regno dei Fiori, Immortalità Amorosa, together with symbols and chromatic sketches, like a secret diary accompanying the visible surface. Here, painting and poetry become one, expressing a profoundly spiritual and loving vision.

It is not merely a painting, but the relic of a total creative act.