«Basta guardare». Sullo scritto d’arte scritto dall’artista

Based on research on the role of double gift in literature and visual culture (Cometa 2014), this essay aims to analyze the work of two painters-writers through their art writings. By a close-reading of Artisti (1994) by Goffredo Parise and Scrissi d’arte (2015) by Tommaso Pincio, this article proposes a study of the authorial strategies used to write about other artists. The juxtaposition of such chronologically distant works is intended to draw the reader’s attention on the persistence of common elements, such as the use of narrative ekphrasis, focused on techniques and materials and on the representation process, not just on content; a focus on the context of production, not just on the work; the presence of literary references as a support to read the works of art; the authors’ tendencies to project themselves onto the portraits of other artists, usually cases of double work as well.