ART “4”
“2”-DAY 18 January
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| DEATHS:
1818 BACCIARELLI — 1987 GUTTUSO |
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Died on 18 (05?) January 1818: Marcello
Bacciarelli, in Warsaw, Italian Polish painter born on 16
February 1731 in Rome. — He studied in Rome under Marco Benefial and in 1750 was summoned to the Dresden court of Elector Frederick Augustus II (Augustus III of Poland), where he worked as a draftsman in the picture gallery. In Dresden, Bacciarelli also painted portraits. Along with the entire Saxon court, he spent the years 1756–1764 in Warsaw, working as portrait painter to the aristocracy. At this time he also moved in Polish circles, getting to know the family of the future Polish king, Stanislav II Poniatowski (reg 1764–1795), among others. In 1764–1766 Bacciarelli worked at the imperial court in Vienna. From 1766 he settled permanently in Warsaw, where he was closely associated with Stanislav II and his court and worked as the chief propagator and interpreter of the artistic policy of the monarchy. In 1786 he was admitted into the Polish nobility. He became the King’s principal painter, organizing and maintaining the artistic workshop in the Royal Castle, supervising the decoration of the King’s residence (1776–1785) and coordinating the accumulation and maintenance of the royal collection. In 1786 he was appointed Director-General of the royal buildings. Bacciarelli enjoyed both the confidence and the friendship of the King. In 1787 he made a trip to Italy, where he was elected to membership of several academies. When the King was forced in 1795 to abandon the capital and abdicate the throne, Bacciarelli remained in Warsaw, maintaining overall control of artistic affairs in the city, and after the death of Stanislav II in 1798 he took control of matters relating to the King’s estate and the disposal of the royal collections. In 1816 he became honorary dean and professor at the newly founded faculty of education and fine art at Warsaw University. Bacciarelli regarded Poland as his homeland, and his descendants assumed Polish citizenship. — W latach 50 tych pracowal w Dreznie na dworze Augusta II. Do Polski przyjechal na stale w 1766, po wczesniejszym pobycie na dworze cesarskim w Wiedniu. Byl nadwornym malarzem Stanislawa Augusta i jego doradca w sprawach sztuki. Malowal obrazy dekorujace wnetrza rezydencji królewskich (Zamek Królewski, Lazienki itp.). Najwiekszy talent wykazal jednak malujac portrety króla i magnaterii (namalowal ich okolo 200). Poczatkowo jego portrety utrzymane byly w tradycji baroku. W okresie pózniejszym, pod wplywem malarzy francuskich, tworzyl w stylu rokoko, a nastepnie neoklasycyzmu. — Aleksandr Orlovsky and Jonas Rustemas were students of Bacciarelli. –- The Academy of Krakow is founded in 1400 by King Wladyslaw Jagiello (1784; 1176x1605pix, 130kb) _ .detail (764x808pix, 60kb) _ Drugi w kolejnosci obraz z cyklu przedstawia wydarzenie, które mialo miejsce w 1400 roku. Król Wladyslaw Jagiello w rok po smierci zony Jadwigi, która przekazala swój majatek uczelni, nadaje przywileje Akademii. Bp Piotr Wysz kleczacy przed wladca otrzymuje dokumentna nowo ustanawiajacy Krakowska Szkole Glówna. /powstala z inicjatywy Kazimierza Wielkiego przeszlo 30 lat wczesniej/ W ciemnoniebieskiej todze, stojacy na pierwszym planie rektor Stanislaw ze Skalmierza rozmawia z mezczyzna o wyraznych rysach Stanislawa Augusta Poniatowskiego. Obraz Bacciarellego powstal ok 1784 roku, a wiec duzo ponad 300 lat od wydarzenia przedstawianego. W nietypowy sposób, a zarazem jedyny jaki mógl sobie wyobrazic zdarzenie malarz doby Oswiecenia, artysta przedstawia obok historycznych osób mitologiczne muzy. Wsród nich mozemy rozpoznac dwie damy dworu: Minerwa - Helena Radziwillówna i Urania - Izabella Czartoryska. Za nimi stoja jeszcze Erato - muza poezji z lira oraz Klio - opiekunka historii. Dodanie do sceny historycznej postaci mitologicznych poszerza interpretacje dziela o dodatkowe znaczenia - doskonale rozumiane na salonach XVIII wiecznej Warszawy. Warto przy okazji zwrócic uwage na stroje i fryzury przedstawionych osób - szczególnie muzy wygladaja jak zywcem wziete z dworu króla Stanislawa. Bacciarelli nie musi studiowac historii, nie musi poznawac dawnej sztuki ani sledzic ksztaltowania ubioru... Wywiazuje sie z powierzonego zadania po swojemu - brak archaizacji /bez której nie moze obejsc sie malarz nastepnego stulecia/, wprowadza postacie mitologiczne, twarze przedstawionych naleza zas do znajomych artysty lub króla - nie pochodza ze sredniowiecznych sztychów czy innych dokumentów... –- The Liberation of Vienna in 1683 (934x750pix, 78kb) _ Vienna was besieged by the Turks and Jan III Sobieski [17 Aug 1629 – 17 Jun 1796], who was elected King of Poland in May 1674, honored his 01 April 1683 alliance with Austria by coming to its aid with 25'000 soldiers and, as the senior commander, took command of the combined relief force of 75'000, which he led to a brilliant victory at the Kahlenberg (12 Sep 1683), one of the most decisive battles of European history. The painting is an equestrian portrait of Jan III. In Pióro Orla Polskiego wiedenska i strygonska opisujac ekspedycja the poet J. Boczylowic celebrated the king and the victory with these verses: "Wiec juz do Wiednia, ledwo w bramie stanie, Az 'Vivat, vivat rex!' - Niemców wolanie, 'To nasz salvator, to pan!' - wykrzykuja, Ci suknie, ci zas rece mu caluja. Do kosciola go Szczepana Swietego Prowadza hurmem tryumfujacego, 'Vivat Rex' - nawet w kosciele wolaja, Lub Cizszej kaza oni, zagluszaja. I tam 'Te Deum laudamus' zaczeto, Gdzie król, zwyciestwa celebrujac swieto, Padl krzyzem, Bogu za ten cud dziekujac." — Portrait of King Stanislaw August Poniatowski in a Plumed Hat (after 1780). – Portrait of King Jan Kazimier [1609-1672] _ detail – Portrait of King Michal Korybut Wisniowiecki [31 Jul 1640 – 10 Nov 1673] _ detail _ The sitter was elected King of Poland in 1669. |
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Died on 18 January 1987: Renato Guttuso,
in Rome, Italian Expressionist
painter and polemicist, born on 26 December 1911 in Bagheria, near Palermo.
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 was 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 Facoltŕ di giurisprudenza, che perň abbandona l'anno seguente, per dedicarsi completamente alla pittura; nel 1931 č 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 Manzů, 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 piů tardi, insieme a Birolli, Cassinari, Manzů, 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 sensibilitŕ 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 necessitŕ morali e dall'idea di fare della pittura un mezzo di rinnovamento sociale. Dagli anni Cinquanta č 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 regolaritŕ alla Biennale di Venezia e dal 1963 č 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 č vastissimo, cosě 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 attivitŕ espositiva: dal 1975, viene eletto nel consiglio comunale di Palermo e piů tardi č 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 cittŕ natale. — Double Portrait of Guttuso (1976; 492x992pix +frame, 159kb) by Mario Schifano — LINKS — Autoritratto (1943, 50x40cm) –- Balera (Ballo Campestre) (778x900pix, 96kb) –- Fiasco sul Tavolo (1951; 900x816pix, 43kb) –- Studio per Crocifissione (849x595pix, 78kb) –- Spadole (661x900pix, 74kb) –- Fiori (Garofani e Rose) (886x538pix, 46kb) –- Barattoli e Fiaschi sul Tavolo (711x900pix, 79kb) –- Tetti di Alcamo (766x900pix, 95kb) –- Donne che Preparano l'Estratto di Pomodoro (713x900pix, 63kb) –- Figurini (741x797pix, 109kb) — 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) —(070116) |
1932
Peter Magubane, South African photographer. —(060116) |
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