 I was listening to the speech of the President of the Consorzio del Vini Chianti Classico at the Chianti Classico Collection tasting in Florence last month, when someone gently tapped at my shoulder and asked me if I remembered him. The embarassed look on my face gave away the signs of non-recognition as I tried to recollect where I had met him. ‘I am Marco Genelli and work for Elisabetta Rogai whom you had met in Montepulciano a couple of years ago,’ he said in English. I remembered Elisabetta the artist, who painted with wine as the paint medium did not speak English but he helped her meet clients who did not converse in Italian.
As I feigned recognition he left me dumbfounded. ‘Thank you very much for writing the article on Elisabetta a couple of years ago. After your first article, international media all over the world wrote about Elisabetta Rogai's art. We hope it's you bringing us luck,’ he said.
I was moved by his gesture and the thought that my article could have made such a significant impact on the work of an artist whom I had barely met a couple of years ago at the similar wine tasting event in Anteprima Montepulciano though I had been very impressed by her work.
I asked him if it was feasible to meet her and have a quick look at her studio even though I was otherwise extremely busy with the Chianti Classico tasting at Stazione Leopolda. Luckily, her studio is barely a 7-8 minute ride on his two-wheeler from the venue-takes 3-4 minutes coming back due to the one-way traffic Florence is notorious for. Normally, I won’t sit on a 2-wheeler in Delhi even if someone offered me a case of Sassicaia, but in Florence the traffic is more disciplined and not as chaotic as in Delhi, so I took my chances and despite the icy winds at 4-6° C decided to take the ride.
 Marco opened the office as he had called her home in the interim but she had not yet arrived. It was nice to meet her when she came within 5 minutes and showed me her studio and the latest works on the easel - one of which was the portrait of Oscar Giannino, the then national leader of the liberal new political party painted in front of 60 distinguished guests. Once finished, the painting would be sent to Milan and auctioned off for charity, she said. Most of her subjects appeared to be women whom she said she drew first and then selected different shades of red and white.
The experimental artist has copyrighted the technique which she calls EnoArte or EnoArt. Many artists in Italy had tried to use wine for painting earlier but failed, she says. Wine does have the obvious limitation of colours but also the problems arise due to wine density, volatility of alcohol etc. But with her research through laboratories she has made wine as a medium a reality. Of course, the wines change colour and so does her painting.
Youngest to the oldest exhibits of her paintings show wine evolve on the canvas-from colors typical of young wines to shades of aged wine. The young paintings smelled strongly of red wine - in fact her studio smelled of a blend of Sangiovese, Nero d’Avola and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo! To prevent the aging indefinitely, until the colours fade out too much she has created a natural colour fixating system based on water and flour. This leaves the hues unchanged but prevents colours from fading over a certain point.
 Last November, Rogai was invited to paint in front of international delegations from the "Great Wine Capitals", a network that brings together seven major wine producing cities - Florence, Bilbao, San Francisco, Cape Town, Santiago, Churchtown and Bordeaux. She painted using 7 different kinds of wines.
Last year she exhibited at Los Angeles and Hong Kong where seventeen of her paintings are still on display. More are in the process for Bahrain, California, South America and possibly Ukraine and Canada. She is keen to display her work in Mumbai and Delhi for which one can contact her directly at info@elisabettarogai.it .
She has since received a significant Press coverage in Daily Mail, Huffington Post, South China Morning Post and several other newspapers, thanks to the initial write-up by delWine, she admits thankfully.
It seems she is fast getting to be an international celebrity artiste. One hopes she finds a curator in India to display her work which is fascinating not only for wine lovers but also art lovers who appreciate experimentation with various painting media as well.
For our earlier article of 2011, please visit Anteprima Montepulciano 2011: Wine and Art
Subhash Arora
Tags: Chianti Classico Collection,Elisabetta Rogai,Anteprima Montepulciano,Chianti Classico |