Lubiam's Collection

Son of the famous painter Guglielmo, Beppe Ciardi is well-known for his landscape paintings, usually set in Venice or in the lagoon, which take an art deeply rooted in the eighteenth century and transform it with impressionist vibrations. He brings such luminism to his works that often the portrayed figures are lost in an atmosphere of iridescent light, at any time of day. Only the profiles of the houses and churches of the Serenissima are defined. In this work, however, the theme is humble, if not stark. A young woman wrapped in a black cloak large stands in front of a thatched hut. But beyond the hut there is an area of rosy light, which demonstrates the excellent qualities of the painter in his rendering of the sky, flecked with tiny clouds. However, the material of the hut´s composition is equally striking, as it bears evident influences of the Macchiaioli.

A well-known painter from Trieste, he is a valid representative of the Italian mid-nineteenth century. He devoted himself especially to landscape painting, supported by a good design and a sincere approach to nature. Close to Fragiacomo in some of his effects, his work is distinguished by a greater compositional linearity. In the landscape that we admire here, the trees and the marshy expanse are all one, conspicuous against the sky embellished with fast-moving clouds. If the gift of chromatic luminosity appears fundamentally lost here, what remains is a good compositional ability and a late romanticism that fades into twentieth century decadentism.

The Lubiam Prize of 1977, this work marks the debut of a young Sandano, then a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Already in this brilliant draft of a woman's body masked by curved lines and almost comic-like features, the artist's powerful post-modern inclination is shown. In fact, he would soon acquaint himself with different experiences, intended to overcome abstract impressionism and Arte Povera, moving towards a substantial return to the representational, with images pervaded by irony, crossing the world of Pop Art and Surrealism. Thus, many years later, it was fundamental for Sandano to build an artistic double in the person of the fantastic and centenary painter Olinsky, who was later enraptured by the appearance of Disneyana and Mickey Mouse, repeating it in paintings that ambiguously allude to the teachings of Salvador Dalì.

Competitor with the 1979 Lubiam Prize, and at the time noted by the director of the Academy of Carrara, Ettore Cecconi distinguishes himself with this remarkable work, a fantastic transfiguration of the natural world. The influence of the great English masters, from Bacon and Sutherland, is evident here, yet reinterpreted through almost disturbing colors. His ability to create, through the juxtaposition of differently painted areas, a contemporary monster that stands out against a double-tinted background is excellent. The final result is surrealism tempered by a certain sweetness. Cecconi was also present in that year with a work entitled Il Pappagallo.

The center of the composition is a fish tank placed on a kind of box and painted with beautiful spatial intention. Inside, two creatures, which ostensibly are goldfish, but which bear a resemblance to small, scarlet seals, navigating water resembling the sea. Around them are piles of white balls. The white balls are evidently the work of the amusing magician with the crazy hat holding a ball with one hand and with the other wielding a megaphone to announce his number. On the left, the woman, the enchantress with busty but grotesque beauty, opens her eyes and presses her lipstick-drawn lips. Higher up, a child completes the scene by lifting two balls. The possibility of what could happen is unknown, especially because everything takes place inside a park with a geometric green in which animated seedlings emerge. It is an almost miraculous creation, of Chagallian intensity, which suspends the love of true illusion, that of the painter.