An air-conditioned art gallery is very alluring in the afternoon heat and so it was that we made our way to CAMeC (Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea) yesterday.
The first of two artists with exhibitions was a Russian artist, Aidyn Zeinalov, whose ‘Siren of the Gulf’ we had already seen on the promenade.
A copy of the one on the waterfront.
The artist donated the bronze to La Spezia, where he has spent much of his time, last year.
Elsewhere in the town is Zeinalov’s bronze of Richard Wagner, who stayed in the town in the summer of 1853.
Wagner
There were also two bronzes of Italian composers, Puccini, who was born in Lucca, a place one could visit from here, and Verdi, born halfway between here and Milan.
PucciniVerdi
The second artist whose work we saw was an Italian sculptor and painter called Aldo Mondino (1938-2005).
Travels in North Africa and the Middle East inspired much of his work.
This series of pictures is simply called ‘Dervishes’ . The artist really conveys the movement in the dance.A closer view of three of the pictures. The brushstrokes are so light and so exact – no room for mistakes!‘Capi e Capricapi’ (Clothes and Hats)Mondino had a series of pieces inspired by carpets in the Middle East. This one, composed of seeds, must, we feel, have been stuck together, but we could see no evidence of this.Close up of the seed ‘carpet’I was less impressed with pictures he produced on squared paper. Mondino has repeated the same subject in the higher of the two pictures, but has not used the constraints of the squares.
My husband, Mark, and I have just sold our house and are taking a year out to have an adventure before we settle down to retirement. We decided on a journey through Italy as it has the perfect combination of good weather, interesting history, great wine and wonderful ice-cream! As we will be starting our journey in January, we are beginning in the very south of the country.
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