Three Exhibitions

Pietrasanta Una Citta d'Arte

The  town of  Pietrasanta calls itself  “Una Citta D’ Arte” although a great deal of  the painting and sculpture exhibited there is not always to my taste or liking, there is a always plenty to look art in the commune run or private galleries of which there are many. 

Currently there are 3 exhibitions sponsored by the Commune Di Pietrasanta all very different to each other. 

 For me the most enjoyable was the  small  modest exhibition of Etchings by Fabrizio Pizzanelli.

Fabrizzio Pizzanelli

 All the elements that go into good picture making are strongly present in these works, balance  of light and shade, strong structural composition, a wonderful sense of line all presented with an immaculate technique.  I found Fabrizio who manned the exhibition himself very “sympatico “ and enjoyed our discussions on his work and painting in general. Definately one of the joys of living here is to wander out to the Piazza for an evening drink and stumble upon work of such quality.

 I liked his work so much I bought this  print.

Paolo Maggis

Across the Piazza I also stumbled upon the paintings of  Paolo Maggis  half a dozen large rooms of  mostly large paintings and in almost everyway the exact opposite of  Fabrizio’s etchings. 

For me these were loud, in your face, images presented with a jarring impact. Punk Painting, strong on energy and vitality but lacking all the other qualities that go into making a good painting.

Mario Marcucci

In between these two exhibitions was the large exhibition in Pietrasanta's main venue the church of San Augostino of Mario Marucci (1910-1992). A painter  from Viareggio

 It is rather difficult to know what to say about these paintings of which there must have beenwell over 100. I wanted to be excited by them, I had seen the catalogue and had expectations of discovering really exciting work by a painter previously unknown to me but as I went from painting to painting, liking a part of one here and a part of one there I found myself wishing that the painter had painted fewer paintings and had really pushed through hise images  to arrive at something much stronger.

He obviously worked fast and instinctively producing a very large body of work but I couldn’t help thinking that his life was more or less concurrent with the italian painter Morandi and how much more Morandi’s work had to offer.

Cultural life in Pietrasanta is assisted by an excellent blog called Art is Life who email all their followers with details of all thats is happening