Remembering Tano Festa Works 1961- 1979 11th June- 23rd July 2004
The exhibition
The exhibition will present, alongside some of Festa's most important paintings, a substantial series of drawings on paper dating from 1961 to 1963, and some of the works showed at L' Oca's in the two personals of 1973 and 1979.
1
The exhibition is opened by a series of
works on paper dating from 1961 to 1963, which can be seen next to Festa's 1962 work
Albinoni. The parallel wooden elements, dead set as a church organ's pipes - whose rhythm is marked by the alternate appearance of black and golden elements; the subtle yet plastic "key changes" obtained by the superimposition of adhesive tapes, or the bold chromatic rendering of the "paper stripes" (obtained by employing only primary colors) are just a few of the elements which suggest a determination to overcome the "informal".
Thus Festa spoke of his work in an interview to Giorgio De Marchis (April 1967): "In 1960 I started working on monochrome paintings involving stripes, but by then I was not thinking of other people's works any more. The catalyst elements were more in the things I had around me, the things I observed - streets, zebra crossings, environments, objects". And about the reaction that the exhibition "5 painters, Roma 60 : Angeli - Festa - Lo Savio - Schifano - Uncini", at the La Salita gallery (presented by Pierre Restany) provoked in Rome's art circles, Festa adds: "It was the emergence of a generation of artists that advocated a clean break from the "informal". The critics talked of both "Nuveau Realisme" and "Neoconstructivism".
2
The works on paper known as
"Monumenti", which as well date from 1962, were realized immediately after the monochrome paintings suggesting a need in Festa to go back to a more emotional approach. In these works the geometric element seems to be coerced into submission by the painter's the very act of painting: for example the beautiful "Monumento dedicato a Don Chisciotte" (Monument dedicated to Don Quixote), where the monument's pedestal is overshadowed by a sculpture made of swift and abstract streaks, logged with white tempera.
In the same interview from 1967 Festa adds: "After this phase of geometric shapes, I started in '62 to recreate the first objects - the windows, the doors, the wardrobes - still connected to the pictures of the year before; it was like acknowledging objects that had somehow become closer; obviously I would not have been interested in observing, say, a horse. In these things I saw a type of structure, a kind of applied geometry - that one of the abstract becoming more real within an object charged with emotional energy."
3
On the 3rd of January 1973 L' Oca showed
"Disegni" (drawings), a personal of Tano Festa's works on paper, some of which are presented again in the current exhibition:
Ezra Pound, Magritte, Suicidio (suicide), Omaggio al colore (a tribute to color), Arcobaleno (rainbow), Fuori programma (unscheduled), all made between '70 and '72. This is how Vittorio Rubiu reviewed the exhibition on the Corriere della Sera, 11th Feb. 1973: " ...Among the pastels on display at the Galleria dell' Oca two stand out for their civility and the dignity implicit in the dedication to Ezra Pound... other are sketches of paintings, some already executed, some still at the planning stage, but all very well etched and with an impeccable and terse layout, even when the color appears to be tousled like a hank."
Likewise, Claudia Terenzi, wrote about the same exhibition (Paese Sera, 8th March 1973): "The pastels shown by Festa (at the Galleria dell' Oca) abide by some unsettling rule - a complex, perhaps enigmatic way of being allusive that is ever present in Festa's work - this is, however, carried off through a language which is ethereal, lyrical, toned down to an apparent delicacy...".
4
L' Oca dedicated a second exhibition to Festa's work in 1979, with a series of works known as
Rebus which had recently been completed. The subject are the games of puzzle magazines which recall - with figures, letters and other signs - inconsequential sentences from a language time- warp. In the current exhibition, some of these works are shown in the the last room.
5
L' Oca's Via Margutta venue will display three projects for an open air sculpture dating 1971- 1972, and a metal scale model for
Monumento ad un poeta morto (monument to a dead poet), dedicated to Festa's brother Francesco Lo Savio, who committed suicide in 1963. This will eventually became the large scale sculpture by the same title which was built in 1989 on Villa Margi's beach in Messina after the artist's death.
Information
Duration: 11th June- 23rd July 2004.
Venues: Via della Mercede 12/a Roma, main stairway, third floor.
Venues: Via Margutta 54, 00187 Rome, inner courtyard.
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10:00 am- 1:00 pm, 4:30 pm- 7:30 pm.
Saturdays by appointment.
Tel. 06 678 18 25 - fax 06 69294238 - mob. 348 731 80 86
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