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| ART “4”
“2”-DAY 02 January
v.5.00 |
| DEATH:
1952 VALTAT |
BIRTH REGISTERED:
1912 GUTTUSO |
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Died on 02 January 1952: Louis Valtat,
French Fauvist
painter, printmaker, and stage designer, born on 08 August 1869. — He spent much of his youth in Versailles, moving in 1887 to Paris, where he studied under Gustave Moreau at the École des Beaux-Arts and under Jules Dupré at the Académie Julian. There he met Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard and Albert André. With a keen interest in both artistic precedents and contemporary trends, he absorbed in the mid-1890s the chief tenets of Impressionism, van Gogh’s work and Pointillism before slowly developing his own style. In 1895 he collaborated with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and André on the set of Aurélien-François Lugné-Poë’s play Chariot de terre cuite, performed at the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre, Paris. Under Toulouse-Lautrec’s influence, his own works darkened both in color and sentiment, for example Chez Maxim’s (1895), in which he depicted two gaunt, severe-looking women seated in a murky café. By 1896 he painted contemporary French life with an overall sunnier, more optimistic air, as in Water Carriers at Arcachon (1897), in which he referred to van Gogh, also looking to Fauvism for his use of bold colors. — Valtat was born in Dieppe. In 1880 his parents moved to Versailles, where the boy attended classical studies before being admitted in 1887 to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He also enrolled at the Académie Julian and met Bonnard and Albert André. From 1893 he exhibited regularly in the Salon des Indépendants. Already in 1895 he painted in Arcachon a series of studies which were exhibited the following year in the Indépendants, and were noticed by Thadée Natanson. Valtat already showed a taste for color and a forceful style which would link him ten years later to the Fauves. But he followed an independent career, never really joining any of the various avant-garde groups he had contacts with: the neo-Impressionists, the Nabis, the Fauves and the Cubists. In 1898, Valtat spent some time in the Côte d’Azur, in Agay, a village on the Esterel hills, where he painted a series of studies which were exhibited the following year in the Galerie Durand-Ruel. He was seduced by the region, and got a house, “Roucas Rou”, built in Anthéor, not far from Agay, where he would spend every winter until 1914. He regularly visited Signac, who had settled in Saint-Tropez, and Renoir, who lived in Cagnes-sur-Mer. From 1900 to 1912, Valtat had a contract with the dealer Ambroise Vollard, which enabled him to travel to Italy in 1902 and to Algeria the following year. In 1905 he took part in the Salon d’Automne, where he exhibited six paintings, including a sea view which, when published in L’Illustration, associated him with the Fauvists. In 1914 he gave up the Midi, and settled in a new studio in Paris. He spent the summer mainly in Normandy and in the Île-de-France, where, in 1924, he bought a house in Choisel. There, he painted many landscapes and family scenes. In 1948, Valtat lost his sight as a result of a glaucoma. He died in Paris. — LINKS — Femme dans un fauteuil (1903, 71x94cm; 773x1000pix, kb) — Violet Rocks (Sea Tide) (1900; 575x715pix, 203kb) — Jeunes Femmes dans le Jardin (1898) — Antheor Bay (1907) — Sunlight under the Trees (1909) — Le jardin du Petit Trianon à Versailles, avec patineurs (1900, 81x100cm; 381x470pix, 99kb) _ 4 détails : 1. mur du jardin, 2: oies et canards, 3: patineurs, 4: peupliers _ The snow-covered park is seen from a point just left of the small bridge leading to the Temple of Love, on the side of the Saint Antoine alley. Valtat, having lived in Versailles since 1880, was familiar with the park. In 1868, Renoir had painted Skating in the Bois de Boulogne (), with a similar composition in its broad lines. Valtat may have seen Renoir’s work at Ambroise Vollard’s, their common dealer, or he may have only seen a photo, as at the time Vollard was gathering the necessary documents to draw up an annotated catalogue of Renoir’s works. But this painting shows Valtat’s originality and sense of humor. In the foreground, the geese and ducks are reduced to schematic outlines, almost caricatures. The birds are aligned like the audience of a show, and seem to be the main subject of the composition. In the background are the small, dark, sketchy silhouettes of the skaters on a patch of ice. The perspective makes them tiny compared with the geese. The marked, elaborate and varied touch, with some unexpected brightly colored spots, reveals the artist’s pre-Fauvism. The composition consists of two main areas with contrasting colors: in the foreground, cold colors; in the background, warm colors. The snow, with the whites touched up in blue, grey, and pink, makes this work comparable to the snowy landscapes of Monet. The water is slate blue, the poplars are like flames with reddish hues, under a snowy sky, gray and heavy, where there is a mix of pinks, mauves, lilac, blues, grays, whites, and even some touches of red. The shadows, the simplificity of the composition and of the perspective, contribute to the modernity of this landscape, representative of Valtat’s work at the turn of the century. |
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Born on 26 December 1911, registered on 02 January
1912: Renato Guttuso, Italian Expressionist
painter and polemicist, who died in Rome on 18 January 1987. He was born
on 26 December 1911 in Bagheria. His father Gioacchino, a land-surveyor
and amateur watercolorist, and his mother Giuseppina d'Amico, due to disagreements
with their home town because of their liberal ideas, registered the birth
on 02 January 1912 in Palermo. Renato Guttuso would become the leader of
the social realist group in Italy. — He gained his first practical experience of art in the form of Sicilian cart-painting in the bottega of a family friend Emilio Murdolo. The images of the exploits of the Normans in Sicily that adorned these carts instilled in Guttuso a strong and lasting preference for epic stories and vivacity of color; similarly, the knowledge that he gained of the Sicilian countryside and peasantry through his father, a land-surveyor and committed socialist, had a marked effect on his work as a mature artist. While still at school in Palermo, he began to study painting in 1928 under Pippo Rizzo [1898–], a minor Futurist who had extensive contacts with mainland Italy. He began studying law in 1930 at the University of Palermo but left the course soon after exhibiting at the Quadriennale in Rome in 1931. — Born in Bagheria, near Palermo, Sicily, he abandoned law studies in 1931, to devote himself to painting. In Rome in 1933-1934 he associated with Cagli, Mafai, Fazzini, and others who were reacting against Novecento neoclassicism. Then he lived in Milan in 1935-1936, in contact with Birolli, Fontana and Persico. He settled in Rome in 1937. He painted The Flight from Etna, his first large realist composition of contemporary Italian life, in 1938. Guttuso took an active part in the struggle against the Fascists and Nazis and made a series of bitterly anti-Nazi drawings Gott mit Uns. In 1946 with Birolli, Vedova, Morlotti, Turcato, and others, he formed the group Fronte Nuovo delle Arti. Guttuso made frequent visits to Paris to study modern French art and for a time he was influenced by Picasso. Many of Guttuso's works have been inspired by the poverty and struggles of the Sicilian peasantry. His later works also include large paintings of the student riots in Paris in May 1968, the funeral of the Italian Communist leader Togliatti, etc., and a series of autobiographical canvases painted in 1965 and 1966. — In 1924, when Guttuso was only thirteen, he began signing and dating his work, mainly copies of 19th century Sicilian landscapes painted on wood. Among them one can mention Gulf of Palermo (1925), in which the grain of the wood is used to represent the sea waves. He also followed other models: French painters, as in Millet’s Angelus (1926), painted on a palette maintaining its original shape, or contemporary ones whose illustrations he somehow succeeded in getting hold of, as in Maritime Pine (1929) after Carrà. In this period he also painted portraits such as Graziella, and the portrait of his father, Gioacchino Guttuso Fasulo (1930). In the following years he frequented the studio of the futurist painter Pippo Rizzo and the artistic milieu in Palermo. In 1929 Guttuso began contributing to newspapers and periodicals. In 1933 his first article on Picasso ran into the Fascist censorship and caused the suspension of his contributions to the Palermo newspaper L’Ora. In 1931 the acceptance of two of Guttuso's paintings by the Prima Quadriennale d'Arte Nazionale in Rome offered him the opportunity to see the works of the greatest Italian artists. To earn his living, Guttuso worked as a picture restorer at the Picture Gallery in Perugia and at the Borghese Gallery in Rome. In the early 1930s he came into contact with artists such as Mario Mafai, FrancescoTrombadori, Corrado Cagli, Pericle Fazzini, Mirko, and Afro. With three other Sicilian artists (sculptors Giovanni Barbera and Nino Franchina, and painter Lia Pasqualino Noto) he formed the Group of Four in reaction against the dominant 'Novecento' movement. In 1935 Guttuso did his military service in Milan where he made friends with artists such as Birolli, Sassu, Manzù, Fontana (with whom he shared a studio), and intellectuals such as Raffaele de Grada, Elio Vittorini, Raffaele Carrieri, Edoardo Persico, the poet Salvatore Quasimodo and the philosopher Antonio Banfi. Despite these friendships, which were of primary importance for the political and cultural experience of the group 'Corrente', Guttuso's Milan period was marked by depression and severe economic hardship, reflected in the tone of his poems. The years 1937-1939 were among the most important in Guttuso’s life. He settled permanently in Rome His studios, the first of which was in Piazza Melozzo da Forlì, appeared in his paintings and became stimulating cultural centers in Rome. In that period he made friends with Alberto Moravia, Antonello Trombadori, and Mario Alicata, who played a decisive role in Guttuso's decision to join the Communist Party. These are the years of the outstanding still lifes and of large works such as Fucilazione in campagna dedicated to Garcia Lorca, and Fuga dall'Etna. In 1938 he met Mimise Dotti who became his mate and later his wife. He contributed as art critic to Le Arti, Primato and Il Selvaggio, the periodical directed by Mino Maccari which devoted an issue to his drawings (1939). In the early 1940s, Guttuso kept producing outstanding works: nudes, landscapes, still lifes as well as a large-scale composition, La Crocifissione (1941), his most famous painting. He explained: “… this is a time of war. I wish to paint the torment of Christ as a contemporary scene … as a symbol of all those who, because of their ideas, endure outrage, imprisonment and torment”. This painting provoked controversy and was censured by the Vatican. In 1940, Renato Guttuso made his debut as musical scene designer, creating scenery and costumes for Histoire du Soldat at the Teatro delle Arti in Rome, directed by Anton Giulio Bragaglia. In 1943 he left Rome for political reasons and join the Resistance against Fascism. The series of drawings entitled Gott Mit Uns, made with inks of underground printing-houses, bears witness to this period of partisan war. After World War II, Guttuso met Picasso in Paris and their friendship lasted until Picasso's death. With artists such as Birolli, Vedova, Marchiori, and the art dealer Cairola Guttuso founded the "Fronte Nuovo delle Arti', a group of leftist artists who aimed at making up for the art suppressed in Italy by the Fascist regime. Social themes and scenes of everyday life prevailed in his painting: workers of the Aspra quarries, sulphur miners, seamstresses, peasants claiming uncultivated lands. In 1947 Guttuso moved to a new studio in the Villa Massimo. In the same year he prepared scenery and costumes for the first Italian performance of the Lady Macbeth of Shostakovich, in Venice, initiating a long collaboration with the choreographer Aurele Millos. In 1952 Guttuso designed scenery and costumes for the Italian première of Mother Courage by Bertoldt Brecht, performed at the Teatro dei Satiri in Rome. Large-scale paintings of his were regularly shown in the Venice Biennale, always stimulating debates and controversies: in 1952 Battle of Ponte Ammiraglio, in 1954 Boogie Woogie, in 1956 The Beach. When Guttuso married Mimise, Neruda, who had dedicated a heartfelt poem to his painting, was a witness at their wedding. In the 1957-1965 period, Guttuso was particularly active as an art critic, contributing to important Italian and international magazines articles on the theory of art, and particularly on realism. He painted The Discussion. He also made illustrations for an edition of The Divine Comedy (1961). These were very successful years sanctioned by major international exhibitions. In 1963, in Parma, Guttuso designed scenery and costumes for Macbeth of Verdi. Guttuso began working on the theme of the newsstand and the man reading a newspaper, which led to his only major sculpture. In 1965 Guttuso moved to the Palazzo del Grillo in Rome, where he lived and worked until his death. The following year he painted Autobiografia, a large cycle of paintings which formed the nucleus of an exhibition which traveled to many European museums. One of the most noteworthy paintings was Gioacchino Guttuso Land-surveyor (1966), portraying his father behind his theodolite. Guttuso worked on scenery for Il contratto by his friend Eduardo De Filippo. Two major Guttuso paintings of the 1970s are La Vucciria (1974) and Caffe Greco (1976). Guttuso illustrated Verga's Malavoglia (1978) and Virgil's Aeneid (1980). In 1976 he was elected a Senator of the Republic for the Italian Communist Party in the constituency of Sciacca. In the 1980s, Guttuso completed one important cycle of paintings, Le Allegorie, which, together with Malinconia nuova and La visita della sera, were shown in Rome. In 1983, he painted a mural, Fuga in Egitto, for one of the chapels of Sacro Monte (above Varese). At the end of 1984 were published the first three volumes of the catalogue raisonné compiled by Enrico Crispolti, who completed the work after the death of Guttuso. After his death, his adopted son, Fabio Carapezza Guttuso, established the Archivi Guttuso in the artist's former studio in the Palazzo del Grillo. — Compie gli studi liceali a Palermo, dove frequenta lo studio del pittore futurista Pippo Rizzo. Nel 1928 espone per la prima volta alla Mosra Sindacale Siciliana. Nel 1930 si iscrive alla Facoltà di giurisprudenza, che però abbandona l'anno seguente, per dedicarsi completamente alla pittura; nel 1931 è ammesso alla prima Quadriennale di Roma. Nel 1933 si stabilisce a Roma, dove stringe rapporti di amicizia con Corrado Cagli, Mario Mafai, Mirko Basaldella, Pericle Fazzini, Alberto Pivieri e Fausto Pirandello. Nel 1935 partecipa alla II Quadriennale e nel 1936 alla Biennale di Venezia. Durante una mostra alla galleria Il Milione di Milano, si costituisce il "Gruppo dei Quattro", formato da Nino Franchina, Giovanni Barbera, Lia Pasqualina Noto e Renato Guttuso. Dal 1935 al 1936 presta servizio militare a Milano, dove ha l'occasione di frequentare gli artisti Renato Birolli, Giacomo Manzù, Lucio Fontana, il poeta Salvatore Quasimodo, i critici Raffaele De Grada e Duilio Morosini, l'architetto Eldorado Persico e il filosofo Antonio Banfi. Nel 1938 si trasferisce definitivamente a Roma, dove realizza il primo dipinto epico-popolare, La fuga dall'Etna, e tiene una personale alla Galleria della Cometa. Due anni più tardi, insieme a Birolli, Cassinari, Manzù, Morlotti, Migneco, Sassu, e Vedova, aderisce al gruppo "Corrente". Nel 1942 al Premio Bergamo ottiene il secondo riconoscimento con la tela Crocifissione, un'aperta denuncia della politica del regime fascista che conferma la sua sensibilità nei confronti delle questioni sociali. In questo periodo, il pittore siciliano studia e reinterpreta le scattanti figurazioni del Picasso post-cubista, svolgendo un ruolo fondamentale nell'evoluzione in senso "realista" della pittura italiana. Negli anni della guerra partecipa attivamente alla Resistenza accanto ad Antonello Trombadori, figlio del pittore Francesco e suo fraterno amico, e ad altri esponenti del Partito Comunista. Dopo quest'esperienza realizza la serie di disegni intitolata Massacri, in seguito raccolti nell'album Gott mit uns. Nel 1947 aderisce al "Fronte Nuovo delle Arti", gruppo artistico che persegue il cammino di "Corrente" e che comprende artisti di diversa formazione uniti da simili necessità morali e dall'idea di fare della pittura un mezzo di rinnovamento sociale. Dagli anni Cinquanta è l'esponente principale di una corrente realista spesso polemicamente in lotta con le tendenze formaliste di molta arte astratta e politicamente impegnata nel sostegno del PCI; Guttuso, infatti, diventa membro ufficiale del comitato centrale del Partito Comunista nel 1951, anno in cui ottiene il premio Lenin a Mosca. Dal 1952 al 1961 partecipa con regolarità alla Biennale di Venezia e dal 1963 è membro dell'Accademia Nazionale dell'Unione Sovietica. Nel 1971 gli viene conferita la laurea honoris causa a Palermo e l'anno successivo i suoi scritti vengono pubblicati con il titolo Mestiere di pittore. Il numero delle mostre personali dedicate a Renato Guttuso nel corso della sua vita è vastissimo, così come sono innumerevoli le partecipazioni a collettive in istituzioni prestigiose sia in Italia sia all'estero. Nell'ultimo decennio della sua vita alterna l'impegno attivo in politica all'intensa attività espositiva: dal 1975, viene eletto nel consiglio comunale di Palermo e più tardi è nominato Senatore della Repubblica. Guttuso muore a Roma nel 1987, lasciando parte delle sue opere alla Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna a Roma e la produzione giovanile a Bagheria, sua città natale. — Double Portrait of Guttuso (1976; 492x992pix +frame, 159kb) by Mario Schifano — LINKS — Autoritratto (1943, 50x40cm) — Sicilian Carpenter (600x773pix, 105kb) — La Nuvola Rossa (600x731pix, 154kb) — The Mocking of Christ (595x400pix, 80kb) — Sulphur Miners (1949, 69x104cm) — Santa Panagia (Sicilia) (1956, 69x78cm) — Natura Morta nello Studio (1962, 32x34cm) — La discussione (1960, 220x248cm; 448x512pix, 43kb) _ The fervent nature of Guttuso's politics is captured in this painting. It mixes the reportage style of Socialist Realism with the modernist device of collage, and shows a scene of heated debate. Partial headlines are legible, such as ‘Proletariat’ and ‘Today in Moscow’. It coincided with Guttuso’s increasing need to defend art that was committed to realism at a time when many in the Western European Communist parties were questioning its value following the death of Stalin and the disintegration of Stalinism. — Bucranio, mandibola di pescecane e drappo nero contro il cielo (1984, 75x109cm; 57kb) — Gioacchino Guttuso (1930; 92kb) — Mario Alicata (1955; 545x562pix, 124kb) — Franco Angeli (1971; 600x312pix, 49kb) — Tetti di Palermo (1985, 140x170cm; 405x490pix, 62kb) — Tetti di Roma (1942, 156x112cm) |
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