Maria Rosa Benso, Transmission, sumi-e ink, collaged papers, glass-painting stain liners on cardboard, 38cm x 36cm

Italian, b. 1949, playing from Turin, Italy

Painting has been part of my life since, at an early age, I started attending the studios of painters belonging to the school of the Italian painter Felice Casorati.

A university degree in linguistics and subsequent specializations then led me to work for international organizations. This work required regular travel, mainly to North and South America and to China. Inevitably, during those years, painting had to become a part-time activity, yet it was one that I never abandoned. On the contrary, my official profession allowed me to be in contact with the most varied artistic and cultural aspects of the countries I visited. In addition, learning foreign languages, such as Chinese and Arabic, helped to familiarize me not only with different sounds but also with different writing gestures.

Love of languages on the one hand and painting and art on the other have been constants in my life. These two merged into one in 1998 when I decided to devote myself to art and painting and to integrate into my work aspects of my previous linguist-self, in the form of lines and signs.

My work cannot be said to be representational, yet hints of reality have never quite disappeared from it. Trying to transcode lines and signs from reality into a sort of visual language allows me to combine both the painter’s and the linguist’s viewpoints. Abstract art is my major form of expression and interest.

Links: www.mariarosabenso.it art@mariarosabenso.it