Melody for Two series is a part of Rogatchi’s Blues series that the artist has created in 2011 for the inaugural exhibition at Palazzo Cioffi-Jacometti in Florence, Italy. The exhibition was tremendously successful, and has been prolonged twice running for unprecedented ten months in 2011-2012, to high critical and public acclaim.
The works from this series also were part of The Rogatchi Foundation charitable art action in support of the victims of the Fukusima nuclear disaster in Japan, especially children and their families.
Michael Rogatchi has created these works in his personal technical mixing Indian ink and oil pastels. The works are executed on the unique hand-made Italian cotton paper produced by the same family on art artisans from XVIII century onward. Michael Rogatchi works on this art medium exclusively while creating his works on paper.
Melody for Two was curated by Inna Rogatchi.
In the words of the series’ curator Inna Rogatchi: ” Melody for Two can best be described as ‘a visual symphony’. It follows the main themes of the Italian Collection of the artist: Florence/Italy, Music and Love . The most important characteristic of Michael Rogatchi’s works on paper in his custom technique is the fine quality of the artist’s approach and execution of his creative ideas. Such finesse can be achieved only by the means applied on paper, namely Indian ink. The second medium used by the artist, oil pastels, being mixed in a special way, provides an unusual for works on paper depth and volume. Those two elements mixed and applied together create unique qualities of Michael Rogatchi’s works on paper in general, and Melody for Two in particular”.
In the words of the artist Michael Rogatchi: “Melody For Two was born as a compact series of drawings that continued the broad theme of the larger Italian Collection of the oil painting. Italy and its pearls, such as Florence and Venice were the main source of my artistic thoughts for the series. Both Florence and Venice, and Italy in general, certainly adds its own charm, its own unique essence to people’s relationships, and it is this peculiar feeling and touch of Italian atmosphere which I was trying to picture and presrve in this series”.
65 x 50 cm. 2018. Private collection, Finland.
