Alessandro Gottardo, 1991

Artist Statement

Title: 1991

Year: 1991

I made this image thinking about all the important things that happened during the year 1991. and taking example from some flemings artists and other Italians of the movement of “Realismo Magico” I put evident or hidden recalls in the whole image.

i thought to represent Freddy Mercury sitting on his couch. in his robe. to remember his death. while one of his cats plays with a bow that has the HIV symbol on it. the carpet below his feet has the logo of the world wide web, newborn in that year. behind Freddy we find the portrait of Nelson Mandela that remembers the end of apartheid, and two posters in pieces, one of the Soviet Union and the other of the former Yugoslavia, both to remember their dissolution. on Freddy’s coffee table there is a blown out candle that since the Renaissance symbolizes the transience of the human being. on the right, in the bookcase we find a tank next to the egg to represent religious wars.

The Gulf War also broke out in that year.

On the sofa there is also an apple core to represent the untimely death of Freddy.

Bio:

Alessandro Gottardo (alias Shout), was born in Pordenone, Italy in 1977. Graduated at the Artistic High School in Venice, he completed studies at the Department of Illustration of the European Design Institute of Milan.

He actively collaborates with numerous Italian and international clients including The New Yorker, TIME magazine, Newsweek, Saturday Evening Post, Le Monde, New York Times, Die Zeit, El Pais, Espresso, Einaudi, Coca Cola, American Express, Hermes, Apple, HBO, VolksWagen, Loyds of London, Penguin Randome House, Little Brown, Simon & Shuster.

His work has received numerous awards including four Gold and three Silver medals from the Society of Illustrator New York, the Gold Medal from the Society of Publication Designer, ADC Bronze Cube, the D&AD Graphite Pencil and Cannes Bronze Lion.

He has exhibited in personal shows in Los Angeles, Belgrade, Montreal and London and several cities in Italy including a retrospective exhibition at Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza in 2014.

Included by TASHEN in the final anthology “100 Illustrators”, and by Laurence King Publishing in the “Fifty Years of Illustrations” anthology.

It has two monographs that include a selection of working years: “Mono Shout” (edited 279 Milan, 2010) and “On Shout” (edited 279 Milan, 2014)

In 2016 he was the Chair of the Society of Illustrators Annual, a prestigious professional contest in the illustrative market that will take place in New York.

@shoutnft

Gottardo invited Virginia Mori to TIMEPieces. Their work is inspired by the year 1991.

Contact us at letters@time.com.