15 - Italian-speaking art with weight

How cultural identity influences Italian expressions of visual art forms

International cuisine has an Italian language: panino, risotto, parmigiano, antipasto, and then pancetta (not bacon), focaccia, insalata, prosciutto, broccoli, tiramisu. These are just a few of the most frequently encountered words beyond the universal espresso, cappuccino, pasta, and pizza.
The Italian language is present in classical music as well: adagio, opera, fiasco, operetta, a solo, and soprano.
This is form, but there is also substance: Italian cuisine is an undisputed favourite, and Italian operas get constantly performed. Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti are audience favourites.
But what about figurative arts? Luca Somigli, Associate Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto and director of the Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian-Canadian Studies, believes there is an Italian language in figurative arts as well.
"Every art movement refers to the cultural tradition of the country where it manifests itself, and where it becomes a school: that's why talking of different languages in figurative art is absolutely correct," he says. "Let's consider two characters in comics: Tin-Tin and Corto Maltese. The first one speaks Flemish, the second speaks Italian. Tin-Tin's author Georges Remì, known under the pseudonym of Hergé, is among the most authoritative representatives of the so-called 'clear line', a school that developed mostly in Belgium but also in France: a sharp, essential, continuous trait. Corto Maltese's author Hugo Pratt is instead one of the top elements of Italian 'chiaroscuro', alongside Guido Crepax, the 'father' of Valentina."
What are their characteristics?
"Pratt and Crepax produced mostly in black and white, and used chiaroscuro in order to give depth to their panels. Their trait is realistic, concrete, in line with the Italian tradition of great authors and characters. Gianluigi Bonelli and Aurelio Galleppini, for instance, who drew Tex, Zagor, and Dylan Dog. Declaring that Bonelli's and Galleppini's Western comics are the best in the world is stating the obvious. That comic strip speaks Italian because it is the result of a tradition, a technique, a culture that developed in Italy."
Silvio Mastrodascio is a renowned sculptor who has exhibited in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Italy, and Japan. His 2003 calendar is thick with new shows: Milan, Novara, Udine, Teramo, Munich. His works in polychrome bronze are on display in numerous galleries and private collections and decorate public buildings on both sides of the Atlantic. When he's asked about their characteristics, he cuts short: "They speak Italian."
How can a bronze statue speak Italian?
"I mean several things. Particularly that its author does not content himself, never feels satisfied by his own work. Do you recall Michelangelo and his Moses? After finishing it, Michelangelo threw his chisel at it, shouting: 'Why don't you talk?' The statue was perfect, and the artist could have felt satisfied; but he didn't, as that Moses lacked speech. Far being it for me to compare myself with Michelangelo; I just recounted this episode to show how, in an Italian artist, dissatisfaction is a drive towards self-improvement, striving for deeper and deeper harmony, and especially to keep questioning oneself. My statues speak Italian because I never distanced myself, despite my 35 years in Canada, from Italian culture."
How could you avoid that?
"First of all by sheer will, but also because my line of work allowed me to travel a lot and to visit Italy five or six times per year. I did not suffer the trauma of other emigrants who had to wait years before going back. As a matter of fact I kept being in Italy, following its social and artistic evolution and maintaining my connections with the Old World. However, I never was a foreigner in Canada either: here is where I attended the Academy of Fine Arts and refined my technique, and here is my base of operations. Italian culture is the matrix of what I do, though."
Could you make some examples?
"The faces, poses, and gazes of my statues are made in Italy. My heads of girls cannot be but Italian: I commit to bronze the faces of Abruzzese, Tuscan, Apulian, Lazio girls. This is not a simple matter of anthropologic traits, but also of states of mind, and some states of mind are only Italian. Think of irony, inscribed in the genes of Italians; think of defeat, which does not equate with resignation because we always bounced back from every fall; and most of all think of our awareness of being an ancient people that lived every season of history that therefore refined an invincible weapon: patience. This is why my sculptures speak Italian. However, they also speak dialect, my dialect."
Because of your constant reference to the culture of your land of origin.
"Exactly. I come from Cerqueto, near Teramo, in Abruzzi. My family roots, and the roots of my art, are there. We are a people of few words, we go straight to the point, frills annoy us. At times I feel like a wild animal. I try and pour all this especially in my mothers and sons and in my horses, striving for simplicity. The matter I use helps me: bronze absorbs light without reflecting it. That's the point: I'm not trying to awe observers, but to make them think. And this is a component of Italian culture that you can't find it in North America"
What do you find here?
"Quantity comes first here, and quality a poor second. North American artists try and fill space and volume. They also strive towards quality, but this is not always motivated by a willingness to improve themselves, to refine what they believe is already perfect. Here, quality is sought as a bonus for selling a product, not for maturing or questioning one's beliefs. Precisely in order to question my beliefs I decided not to tell only ancient feelings and sensations, but to chronicle the present."
How do you do this?
"My most recent production tells of today's Italy, shifting from a country of emigration to a country of immigration. I created some sculptures that depict, in a bronze sphere, the many races now making up the Italian society, where the need for a peaceful coexistence emerges with increasing strength. This message is born in Italy but has references to the reality in Canada, where multilinguism is paving the way for ever-higher levels of tolerance. Well, if we want to draw a parallel between what I do and the subject of your series, we could say that my production keeps speaking Italian and my dialect, occasionally using Anglo-Canadian expressions and words."
Laura Foster, from Wisconsin, not only speaks a beautiful Italian but has also an in-depth knowledge of Italian culture. She's got a BA, an MA and a PhD in Art History. She lived in Rome for many years, teaching at John Cabot University and Temple University Rome Campus. Precisely because she's not Italian, her analysis is immune to patriotic wishful thinking.
How can one understand that a work of art is from an Italian school, that it 'speaks Italian'?
"If we assume - like many experts do - that a language of art exists, we must consider the context of the artwork, the materials used, the ways of its preservation and public fruition. For instance, there is no marble in North America, so a marble statue will most likely come from elsewhere. In Italy, on the other hand, marble abounds and has been used in sculpture since remote times. The link with the past is what characterizes 'Italian-speaking' art."
In your opinion, how great is the influence of art on the education of Italians?
"Italians are constantly exposed to works of art: public and private buildings, fountains, monuments, ancient findings can be found all over the country. In Italy you don't need to visit a museum to be able to admire sculptures and paintings, because even the churches and private palaces are full of them. An Italian who grew up in Italy - and therefore exposed to an Italian visual and architectural environment - has an innate grasp of artistic tradition, due to the influence on his education played by ancient masters like Giotto and Brunelleschi, to mention but two, or modern ones like Amedeo Modigliani or Lucio Fontana."
And how can a Canadian work of art be recognized?
"In Canada, painting and sculpture make constant reference to nature, as interpreted via the French and British traditions. From this point of view they are different from Italian art: while the Italian tradition depicts nature through artifices and metaphors, the Canadian tradition maintains nature's wilderness and rusticity. Think of the Group of Seven, for instance."
How did 'Italian-speaking' art influence 'English-speaking' art in North America?
"In an indirect way. Let me explain with an example: the city of Washington, D.C., a sort of Neo-classical Utopia with monuments inspired to Rome's majesty. The architect who designed most of those monuments, Frenchman Pierre l'Enfant, had studied Art and Architecture in Rome, like many of his fellow countrymen between the 1700s and 1800s. Therefore, Washington's architectural language has Roman roots, filtered through the aesthetic values of post-Napoleonic France. Let's not forget that some of the most significant monuments in Washington were made in Italy: e.g. Abraham Lincoln's statue on display in his Memorial."
How long did the Italian influence on American art last?
"Until the early 19th century; since then, North American art has been speaking mostly English and French. It couldn't get rid of Italian, though."
What do you mean?
"I mean that the technical terminology of figurative art in English borrows a great many Italian words. There are no English words for chiaroscuro, sfumato, contrapposto, impasto. The same goes for architecture: one cannot study it if the meaning of nouns such as palazzo, piazza, portico, cupola, basilica, loggia isn't known."
What will be the effect of globalization on art? Will it leave art speechless?
"The world of art has already globalized. The cross-linking of artistic experiences is so intense that discriminating artworks on the basis of national culture is difficult if not impossible. However, many contemporary artists use their own cultural roots as the theme of their work: this is how they reaffirm their identity at the same time broadcasting it. The art of many Italian artists of today - also thanks to new technologies - has often been influenced by the art of other countries. This does not mean that globalization has left art speechless, but only that its vocabulary has become larger. Exchanges enrich art. This is not the first time this happens: Roman art would have never achieved the levels we all know if it had not felt the influence of the Greeks."

Publication Date: 2003-04-06
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2583