Clippings from the press about Picchio:

Secolo d’Italia, 1 Febbraio 2004

“Appuntamenti con l’Arte”

Prof. Renato Civello, Critico d'Arte

Instinct and rigor

In a gallery that is constantly working on a selection for a good exhibition, Tondinelli in Via Quattro Fontane in Rome, opens on Wednesday the solo exhibition of the famous German artist, Picchio [Dieter Specht], who lives and works in Arcegno (in the canton of Ticino/Switzerland). After exhibiting for the second time in Italy (in 2003 he successfully participated in the Biennale Internazionale of Florence), Picchio will then show his works in Lisbon, in a gallery of a state institute, from March 8 to April 2, also in Portugal.

The title of the exhibition is "Segments" and could lead to misconceptions: for example, could be thought of geometric divisions of the painted surface, similar to what was seen in the first decade of the last century by the group of the so-called "golden session", with Leger, Metzinger, Fresnaye and others, an experience that marks the transition from analytical cubism to the synthetic.

But the intricate operations of geometry and mathematics, represented in some ways even in meditated abstractionism and even in Dada, are essentially unknown in the painting of Picchio [Dieter Specht]. Here is neither adventure nor coding; despite the precise programming of the work "very present and determined from beginning to end", accompanied by the energetic temperament of the artist, ready to organize his own work. It is the creative instinct that finally produces the poetic-fantastic result. For the rest, his works are of a balanced professionalism and objectively vivid. 

I limit myself, among others, to Crash, a very beautiful painting, even if the denomination means collapse, break, bang, it seems, on the contrary, to express a delicate, light charisma of acrylic work. Segments, the title to the entire exhibition, prompts, against any presumption and whimsical invention, the idea of rigorous omission of the usual cliché of an imitation.

 

Il Giornale d’Italia 19.2.2004, Cultura

Paintings and installations, in constant search of abstraction.

The work of Picchio [Dieter Specht] certainly has great impact in the exhibition of the Tondinelli Gallery in Rome, which exhibits a series of paintings and installations. It is the fruit of his ceaseless search for abstraction. The exhibition is under the patronage of the German Embassy in Italy and the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Switzerland in Italy.  Specht is one of the very original German artists of the last generation and works in Arcegno (in the canton of Ticino/Switzerland).  He exhibits on this occasion the second time in Italy, after the participation to the Biennale Internazionale d Arte Contemporanea of Florence in December 2003. A kind of painting that is carried by the observation and by the confirmation and "pushes to the abstraction Picchio's painting in fluent transitions that make the thematic seem secondary and at the same time make aware that for example also the color blue can be a theme...". (Dr. Martin Kraft). For his Segment-Art he uses pure acrylic colors for strong expression, tones in the pastel and in cromatic opposite, and realizes a structure of the material as in divisionism, a strong way that achieves to direct the eye of the spectator to the picture. A modular painting technique influenced by industrial processes, as demonstrated by his installations and his ever new modules of standard formats, and that in ever new change....

Simona Sperindei

 

Bergische Morgenpost (Lokalteil der Rheinischen Post)

dated 31.11.2003, by Joachim Rüttgen

The management of Interroll has purchased an impressive work of art from the company's founder Dieter Specht. Anyone who enters the hall as a customer, supplier or employee is immediately captivated by this colorful collage, which unites the company's entire product range in one picture. Modern and abstract, these are the artistic styles of Specht, who is called Picchio in Ticino (the Italian word for woodpecker).....The two-by-two-and-a-half-meter work of art that adorns the reception area in Höferhof shows exactly that the artist has discovered his own style. Specht likes to divide surfaces into segments, thus loosening up the picture for the viewer. Boredom doesn't stand a chance, the eye keeps moving.....An impressive eye-catcher!

Generalanzeiger Wermelskirchen

Nov. 31, 2003, by Andreas Weber

...Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Interroll Holding (headquartered in Sant'Antonio; Switzerland), Specht has been a member since 2000, but above all he devotes himself with growing enthusiasm to his boyhood dream, painting. "It is more than just a nice hobby, today I pursue it as a second career," Specht bubbles with energy Near his home, in the Swiss Ticino above Lake Maggiore, not far from Ascona, the retired businessman has set up a modern studio.

His commitment has remained worldwide. Exhibitions in Zurich, Geneva, Innsbruck and New York, Padua, Florence and Rome bear witness to this. With "Picchio" (Italian for woodpecker) he has acquired an artist's name. One that stands for unusual art objects. In a first series Specht created flowers, calligraphies followed and abstract paintings.

A collage now hangs as a commissioned work in the motherhouse in Höferhof. Dieter Specht explained the procedure: First, he divided the canvas into segments, then painted with palette knife and expressive, quick-drying acrylic paints, incorporated advertising brochures and put on top the products that have made Interroll what it is today: a leading global supplier of components and subsystems for material flow, conveyor technology and automation.

Dieter Specht combines art and industrial design, inserting the company's history in the process, and in the end he is certain: "The work represents a piece of corporate culture." Corporate culture is a concept close to Specht's heart. After all, in this case he brings his experience as a company boss in line with artistic activity....

Ticino newspaper

28.Juni 2003 S 15

...The themes are varied. They range from abstract compositions to depictions of flowers to scenes from the industrial treatment of materials; always transferred into vertical segments, those stylistic elements with which Picchio creates the aesthetic order typical of him. In addition to the paintings, Picchio exhibits for the first time pictorial objects called "Art-in-Space". The picture-sculptures consist of body-high, painted elements. The three-dimensionality opens up a multitude of possible perspectives for the viewer.....

Neue Zuger Zeitung

May 7, 2003, p 51, by Maria Vogel, (art historian).

The admosphere of the exhibition is spring-summer. Large red, blue, yellow and white flowers radiate out into the room....

Another peculiarity of these paintings is the division into vertical paths. Sometimes the boundary lines of these segments extend through the flowers, sometimes they are overlaid by flowers....

...Picchio, however, claims to have no models and not to adhere to any isms, but without knowledge of art and preferences he could not paint as he does. However, he creates his own style, marked by his personality, uses many shades of color on a small surface and changes the surface here and there with ornamental-looking parallel serpentine lines or diagonal hatchings.....

Picchio seems to have found his style with the segments. He pulls this segmentation through so strongly that, despite its power, the impression of the static and the routine is not completely absent.

Ticino Management, mensile Svizzera di Finanza, Economia e Cultura,

Anno XIV n. 4, Aprile 2002 S.182 + 183

"Making art with money. - With the introduction of the euro, German marks, lire, French francs, etc. have been withdrawn from circulation; but they live on in the large-scale collages and acrylic paintings of Picchio, the versatile artist who lives and works in our canton....

Födermittel Journal,2002, Logistik und Materialfluss,

34. Jahrgeng März 2002 S 14+15

"...Specht's studio, created according to his own designs in the old village center of Arcegno, is in the process of developing into a small but fine idea workshop for corporate culture. Heads from materials handling services and other industries seek advice here....His images are a visible expression of a corporate culture that is positively lived...

f+h Fördern und Heben, Zeitschrift für Materialfluss und Automation...

Ausgabe 1-2 2002 S.12

"...For Specht (Picchio), a second career is emerging that shares with the first, in addition to creativity and dynamism, the intense effort to combine success with fun..."

Lagertechnik 2002

25.Jahrgang Dezember 2001 S. 4

"...Dieter Specht has always been both artist and entrepreneur - and side by side....Dieter Specht continues to live up to his role as a defining figure in materials handling technology in his second career..."

Ticino Magazine, Rivista Mensile del tempo libereo,

Novembre 2001, S.11

"...Other works show simple words and objects, assembled in various collages and compositions. From this everyday Picchio creates "intensities of the beautiful," as Claus Steinrötter calls the painter's pictures in the exhibition catalog....

Tessiner Zeitung,

31.Okt.2001, S. 13

"...An intense, yet cheerful and serene universe of colors and light opens up to the viewer. The geometric form, the decomposition into striped segments, is Picchio's basic stylistic inventory. The segments open up what has happened to the viewer....