English (United Kingdom)
Art and horses have something magical capable of gently penetrating the human soul and alleviating the pains of those who suffer. And therefore it is no coincidence that both are used as a therapeutic form to accompany traditional therapies.
Art therapy and hippotherapy are often used even for the most difficult cases, for people who close into a shell and do not want (or cannot) communicate. Autistic children often communicate more easily with horses than with humans, and seeing a paralyzed person walking and experiencing space and fresh air thanks to the horse is a priceless emotion.
Paola Pericone is an artist who inherited her passion from a family of artists. It was natural that her most native form of communication was art. Her father was the painter Giovanni Pericone and her family has been managing the famous Art Gallery Le Muse di Colleferro for over 50 years.
Then something happened in Paola's mind and shortly after having a beautiful baby she entered an emotional tunnel. In years gone by people did not seek the subtle disinctions and even established doctors bravely experimented with 'miraculous' cures.
Without bothering too much the famous works of Van Gogh, or our Alda Merini and Goliarda Sapienza, it seems that many artists have a particular genetic variant of Neuregulins that makes them so creative but also very fragile (https://www.discorsivo.it/magazine / 2013/10/01 / artists-cursed-genius-madness-the-secret-gene /).
Paola, however, was lucky enough (in addition to her family) to vent her creative exuberance with painting and to love horses to the point of enrolling in a riding school with her daughter.
And it is there that I met her again after many years, while she was riding Modigliani, a very good bay horse capable of empathizing with inexperienced riders and making them feel they are great champions.
Modigliani had many years experience and a background in dressage and was able to read the minds of the riders (I have personally experienced this) to the point that we all felt expert riders.
Paola came to take dressage lessons while her daughter Serena became more and more a rider for equestrian competitions. A way of being united by a passion that made them both happy.
Then children have grown up, they have gone to study outside and Paola has returned to focus on her other passion: art. And this is how I came to find her after several years during which I had been out of the town. As a grandmother, she creates a drawing for each day of the little girl’s life and one day we started looking at her past drawings of her horses.
One really bewitched me. An oil painting that is a masterpiece of irony and surrealism.
She was inspired by a story she had read as a child. A policeman who fines a horse standing in a no-parking zone between two cars. A background of a brick wall reminiscent of Pink Floyd of 'Another brick in the wall', and ending with a riot of chaotic colours.
An expression of joy that led to a smile but also to reflections.
I remember a scientific article about how urban streets stank during the period of horse-drawn carriages because of their droppings. The greeting 'shit, shit, shit' to the artists on the day of the debut meant a long stop of the horses outside the theatre while the gentlemen enjoyed the show: 'a lot of shit meant a lot of time spent enjoying the show'.
Finding cities full of cars with the air saturated with exhaust gases and the policeman who fines a horse is the apotheosis of man's feigned victory over nature.
Another painting gave me extreme serenity. A watercolour with two horses in absurd colours, pink and blue, dancing on two legs to music that can be understood from the heart to be a waltz. But it could also be a romantic melody.
The happy expressions, the unlikely but soft colours and the light stroke make this dance a dream to be seen and enter. A world where all those who love horses feel they have already participated in some way.
In its madness it is a familiar picture. It is as if it were natural for horses to dance and it is only the dull-witted who cannot see them.
Paola donated these two works to the Horse Museum Foundation and today everyone can admire them by visiting us to share moments of love for art, horses and sip a good wine with us.
In our town we have an excellent Cesanese del Piglio DOCG, but we taste all the good wines of the world. Especially if they have labels with pictures of horses!
We thank Paola Pericone for her generosity that makes us happy every day and that will delight all our visitors. We are sure that we will exhibit it in some shows around Italy and the world.
To the heights Paola! You are a force of nature and we like you just the way you are!
