Essay - Alberto Rizzo:

Myth of the Cave
The Shadows of Alberto Rizzo
Howard Hain, NYC 2001

Since Plato's parable of den-imprisoned fettered man able to perceive only shadows, artists and intellectuals have grappled with the question of an individual and changeable world versus one of universal and eternal being. By freeing his captive to see the truth Plato not only unshackles our conception of reality but exposes both our resistance to liberation and our difficulty to with absorbing the blinding light of truth itself, problems Alberto Rizzo faces fearlessly and successfully tackles in his latest body of work, "The Shadows." A Roman by birth, Rizzo delivers images evoked in the Greek mind of Plato 2,300 years ago.

With "The Myth"' Plato inspires not only philosophers but poets, musicians, and in particular visual artists to continually challenge our views of perception and reality- all attempting to depict the individual instance in such a way as to unveil the ideal Platonic Form. The history of art reveals this fascination as well as its demand for experimental technique. Cezanne, van Gogh, Munch, Picasso, Rodchenko, and Bacon are just a few who have expanded our boundaries of reality by flexing the limits of abstraction, color, composition and perspective.