Oil on canvas
40 x 84 inches
2023
I was seated on the last barstool next to the open door in Cipriani’s Bar, awaiting Helen, who was in our pensione, making final adjustments to her evening costume. With few cares, and fully under the spell of the Adriatic’s shimmering jewel, I blissfully sipped the evening’s first Campari and soda. Suddenly, a man wearing a black mask cavorted precariously and gleefully into plain view through the open portal, snaring my startled gaze. I perceived this jester’s mirthful abandon and improbable dance as a kaleidoscopic blur. For a frozen moment, as in a Muybridge photo, he stared directly into my eyes and emitted a slight smile, as if he knew me. Leaving more than enough lira on the bar, I slipped off my stool and followed him. His expression conveyed that his performance was intended for me alone. Still confounded, and lacking a witness, I cannot be certain of the events of that night. They resemble a dream, and yet I am haunted by vestiges and bits of memory too clear to dismiss, too unreal to accept. Was the experience real? Was it something that took place outside or within my own mind? Hoping to reconcile the events of that evening, I began sketches soon after returning to New York. I decided to reconstruct the feelings and events as best I could in a painting. So, using my keenest recollection, I set out with fervor to paint the jester’s appearance. The only thing of which I was certain was the costume itself. I also hoped to sort out the preoccupations of the unconscious mind from reality. This time, with a paintbrush in hand, I again followed the jester. I spent a good deal of time conceiving and tossing around a variety of compositions. Like any other, the picture—which I entitled Avatar Incarnate
Rob Mango - 2014 “100 Paintings, an Artist Life in New York City” courtesy, No Room for Doubt inc.