ISBN: Ostalo
Godina izdanja: 1981
Jezik: Italijanski
Oblast: Slikarstvo
Autor: Strani

AFRO - Catalogue of exibition of Afro Comune di Siena. Assessorato alla Cultura Palazzo Publico

Predgovor - Cesare Brandi

Izdavač - 2RC Editrice

Godina - 1981

72 strana

33x23 cm

Povez - Broširan

Stanje - Kao na slici, tekst bez podvlačenja


`There are paintings in this exhibition of Afro`s work in Siena that have never been shown before: in fact most of these very carefully chosen works. Afro had an infallible critical conscience when it came to what should be preserved and what destroyed without any reference to exhibitions. I am reminded of my friend, the great painter when he came to visit me at Vignano, Siena that is. Now and then, our mutual friend Burri would come as well, a habit, of affectionate friendship which began way back in 1963.

I had first met Afro in Rome in the small artistic circle of the Cometa accompanied by an extraordinary woman, Mimi Pecci-Blunt, great grand niece of Leone XIII. She was very fond of the new style in painting and poetry. More or less, all the members of that small group of artists were to become famous, from Libero de Libero to Scipione and Mafai, from Cagli to Capogrossi, from Mirko to Afro.

It gave new life to Rome, that Rome which was so provincial, even if the generosity or penury of the present descendents has dusted the faded glories of Sartorio and De Carolis, of Ximenes and Cambellotti who then seemed the most insupportable of “pompiers” (and to me seem so, even now). Afro belonged to the new group of painters and came from the Friuli with his brother Mirko who had worked with Arturo Martini, and from whom, he obtained an indefectible skill as artisan and an insuperable plastic strength. Afro was tall and thin, and as dark as a southerner, with thick crew-cut hair like a brush and a big smile which came readily to his lips. He was always good humoured and kind; a friend for every day. When I first got to know him he had already left the painting of the XVth Century far behind, a type of painting he had practised with Cagli who always had a Platonic love affair with Paolo Uccello and the painters of Ferrara, and his own rapid and fluid technique made use of free brush strokes which floated, but were always controlled. I remember those views of the Roman Forum done from Mirko`s studio on the Campidoglio; a Forum that seemed almost fluid, seen as in an evening dream, with borders of columns, the hues of sunset and shapes like moving trees, but the tone was dark, there was no connection either with Mafai or with the other painters of the Cometa. Afro did not pose as an intellectual, nor did he have much time for poetry. On the other hand he was sensitive and spontaneous even if not exactly extrovert, and of exemplary moral rectitude. For a certain time his women friends were always older than himself, perhaps as a result of his innate courtesy which would not allow him to refuse their company. His first wife also, whom he loved very deeply was also to be a little older than himself.

He was generous without being extravagant, because, born poor, of a simple family he had to learn the value of money from an early age. But once he had made a name for himself and had a solid bank account behind him, he liked to return to his own home town, not any small house along the Roggia, but to the castle of Prampero, which the earthquake, later, almost completely destroyed.

We had gone there to find him, I and Vittorio Rubiu, of whom he was also very fond. In the castle, where for a few months every year he lived in comfort, but not in pomp, we spent a few days in an atmosphere which only friendship and the refreshing atmosphere of the Pre-Alps can provide. Of course Nunziata was there, Nunziata who was to become his second wife, who loved the house as a snail loves its shell, and we ate and drank as Afro and we ourselves liked, in a healthy way with fresh tasty food. We went on trips to San Daniele, before it was reduced by the earthquake, to Tricesimo, to eat small roast birds and to Cividale to see the small temple. In the Friuli, it is as if the air were always the air of evening time, as in the summer when it rains and there is no more dust and the sky becomes blue in streaks, something that Afro liked so much in the paintings of his central period, when he passed to the abstract, without difficulty, to the transparent, with colours like jewels.`


Ako Vas nešto zanima, slobodno pošaljite poruku.

Ricardo Rikardo Fermina Basaldella Mario Graziani