"OHNE WARUM-Do not ask Tatafiore why he paints: any answer he decides to give you will never be definitive. A sign, colour or apparition may exist quite independently of his desire to explain the reason why.

His signs, colours and visions exist and appear because they cannot help but exist and appear: every other clarification provides confirmation of this fact. With Silesius, 'The Cherubinic Pilgrim' (Cherubinischer Wandersmann), he loves to repeat that "the rose is without a 'why', it blooms because it blooms. It pays no attention to itself, nor does it ask whether anyone sees it". Indeed, this simple conviction is enough to appreciate its mystery and beauty." (Michele Bunuomo)

Ernesto Tatafiore (*1943), psychiatrist, painter, was born in 1943 in Naples, where he still lives and works. Within his oeuvre the viewer is confronted with a unique poetic language of thematic painting, drawing, etching and sculpture referring its narration from the European intellectual and social history. After 50 years of artistic work and three participations at Venice Biennales in 1970, 1980 and 1990 Tatafiore's oeuvre is meanwhile among the most significant and complex of Italian contemporary art. We like to honour the artist with this retrospective exhibition on the occasion of his 75th birthday this year comprising exhibits of all work stages.

In conjunction with the exhibition a catalogue is published including essays by Michele Bonuomo, Achille Bonito Oliva and Ernesto Tatafiore.