Markus Vallazza – The World Illustrator

KUNST MERAN, Merano, Italy

Markus Vallazza - illustrator, etcher, poet, rebel, cosmopolitan - has drawn and passionately interpreted, never simply illustrated, innumerable works of world literature.

With Oswald von Wolkenstein, he has overcame the tight restrictions of his home country, and with Dante Alighieri, he has entered the dark forest, suffered hell, and created his own heavens. He has traced the lifeworld and secret obsessions of Friedrich Nietzsche, has explored the miracle and diversity of evolution with Charles Darwin. Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes has been and still is a faithful companion of the artist, knowing that even failure can be asset; with the "Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance", he has fought against helicopters as well as against political ignorance.

Vallazza's drawings have retold texts from Sophocles down to Friederike Mayröcker; the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have found a graphic echo by a pointed pen, and companioned as well as revered artists – such as Alberto Giacometti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, or Norbert C. Kaser – have been captured in vivid portraits.
His themes revolve around life and death, love and sensuality. In his drawings and etchings, Vallazza lets viewers take part in his exuberant and chaotic, horrible, and yet beautiful world, which he has committed to paper in a personal and emotional manner.
23 of works by the South Tyrolean artist Markus Vallazza exhibited in Merano Arte belongs to Infeld collection.