Rogatchi Blues collection of oil paintings and original drawings ( Melody For Two) was created by Michael Rogatchi in 2010-2011 as a special project on Italian cultural heritage re-addressed by the artist from the modern point if view and via prism of his personal perception. The inaugural exhibition of Rogatchi’s Blues had a place at Palazzo Ciofi-Jacometti in Florence, Italy in May 2011. Due to the tremendous success of the exhibition, it had been prolonged twice to run for ten months in Florence in 2011-2012. The exhibition had been called in Italian media and by the Florentine cultural authorities ‘the highlight of the cultural year, alongside with the retrospective of Botticelli’.
Rogatchi Blues is curated by Inna Rogatchi.
The collection has been critically acclaimed by the art critics in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, the USA, and the others.
The works in Rogatchi Blues collection explores the themes of music, love, sensuality, emotions and people’s relationships. The coloristic of the series provides elegant approach to eternal themes and adds a modern time and view dimension to the artist’s expressions.
In the words of Michael Rogatchi: “The most characteristic for Rogatchi’s Blues feature that binds it all together is the idea that I should ‘write a book’, to create a collection of visual novelettes. Each painting in the series is a story, with its plot and emotions”.
From the point of view of the series and exhibition’s curator Inna Rogatchi: “The art starts where cliche stops, and from that perspective to paint in blue need not meant to be in a blue mood. In his Rogatchi’s Blues series, the artist focuses on three main subjects: Italy/Florence, Music and Love, all these mutually intricate to create unique images, singing metaphors and new symbols”.
In the words of prolific art critic Judith Harris: “ Michael Rogatchi’s new series is thoughtful, innovative, fine tribute to Florence, but also it is the artist’s ongoing search for common human values. Magical, overwhelming, strong, powerful – it would be difficult to go beyond these words, so I limit myself to one: Bravo, Michael!”.
The full essay of Judith Harris “Mysterious Doors of the Impossible: the Edge of Michael Rogatchi” can be read here.
The collection and its inaugural exhibition were the part of The Rogatchi Foundation special charitable events in support of the victims, especially children and their families, of the Fukusima nuclear catastrophe in Japan, as well as The Rogatchi Foundation Orphan Support Project for orphans in Ukraine and in Africa in a joint Orphan Aid project with the Baglioni Hotels Group.
