ART WITHEMOTION...

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33083, 25 November 1972, Page 19

ART WITHEMOTION...

The Peter Stuyvesant exhibtion of Italian sculpture being displayed at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, comes to the Christchurch art scene as a welcome breath of fresh air by bringing with it a wonderful warmth and spirit of humanity so often lost in the more scientific, clinical and medium - dominated approaches of some twentieth century art movements. Most of the 33 artists represented were born in the first quarter of this century and between them they exhibit 60 works. Franco Gurelli, Umberto Milani, Basaldella Mirko, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Gio Pomodoro, Loreno Squanci, Francesco Somaini, Alberto Viani, Berto Lardera, Edgardo Mannucci and Quinto Ghermandi all work in abstract styles that relate essentially to the twentieth century. Yet there is a cerebral approach in their work that represents less of a bald confrontation with a machine age and more a dynamic living quality of rhythms and mass descriptive of life.

Floriano Bondi, Corrado Cagli, Pericle Fazzini, Emilio Greco, Giacomo Manzu, Marino Marini, Alturo Martini, Francesco Messina and Medardo Rosso are among those whose work has its roots in the rich traditions of Italian sculpture dating from antiquity. Gothic linealism marks the work of Bondini. In the facial characteristics of Greco’s portraits and “Large Bather” are strong echoes of

classic Greek sculpture, while the subtle surface modulations of Rosso’s “Ecce Puer” present a naturalistic rendering of flesh that had its beginnings among some of the fifteenth century Italian sculptors. Altogether it is an exhibition rich in content and loses some ground only by the fact that the Robert McDougall Art Gallery does not have sufficient space to display each work to its best advantage. The exhibition will remain open until December 12. —G.T.M.