At first sight the title "Techniques of Coincidence" seems to be contradictory. Calculability, repeatability and rationality of technique in general almost have to exclude coincidence and accident because they put well-planned and scheduled procedures at risk. Good and bad luck are usually interpreted as coincidence, unpredictable and without an evident cause. ln any case you cannot produce coincidence, it happens. If you, however, refer to the original meaning of "technique", to "art(ifice)" and "craftship", that is to all forms of human skill and creativity, the contradiction mentioned makes sense and will be of appealing interest.
To a connoisseur of pictures and images, to a painter as Rosario Buccellato "coincidence" might first of all mean alert and mindful perception: co-incidences of hisinner and outer world: pictures, Situations, encounters, perception en passant. He follows his visual inspirations as weil as his intuitions and designing them the artist arrives at the technique of collage. While combining his own and external objets trouvts, he helps coincidence along. Collage as a sort of directed coincidence, which creates a new meaning by constructing a new context: animals which do not react to human beings, people in diserdered communication, anchorless and on shaky ground, perspectives and Iack of prospects.
No other technique than varnish painting might be in a better correlation to the novelty of thesefigurative combinations: Lots of lucent layers produce transparent transitions ofthe colours. By this means the tone is unpredictable, which concerns the intensification as weil as the designing of contrasts. The fabrication of new tones, depending on the number of layers, is almost an epitome of a technique of coincidence. How does the artists create new contexts in his paintings? ln many pictures by disposing textiles: panels, curtains and clothes structure the paintings, they conceal and reveal. Incoherence does not inhibit connections: fabrication via fabrics by means of art. To Rosario Buccellato perception and designing of Casualitll, of coincidence, means that he realizes a certain kind of coherence, which is initially only discovered by him: structural, perspective, in form and content. He finds this coherence by making collages and acts it out in his painting. Casualita is based on the artist's firm conviction that in coincidence there lies a truth, which transcends schedule and foreseeability. Under this aspect Buccellato • s paintings affirm deeper (or higher?) coherence than the one apparent in our world. These paintings are no flukes, they rather capture and fix the uniqueness of coincidence. Their coherence, although, should not be confounded with a new order, harmony or even less with luck. Being coherent in a unique and intense manner makes Rosario Buccellato's paintings so confusing and disturbing.
Dr. Hermann Ühlein