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Mauro Giancaspro, On realism
MY WORK AS A PAINTER
The writing of Alberto Sughi between a diary and a notebook of thoughts
ArteIn, 1 Dicember 2013
ALBERTO SUGHI “Il mio lavoro di pittore A cura di Mario & Serena Sughi Allemandi & C., 2014 pp. 170 - € 18,50
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Alberto Sughi’s book entitled
“Il mio lavoro di pittore”
(My work as a painter) will
soon be in the bookstores.
Published by Allemandi, this
volume consists of excerpts
of writings edited by Serena
Sughi that are somewhere
between a diary and a book
of reflections, annotated
between 1954 and 2008.
Should we want to find an
impersonalised subtitle, we
could resort to the title of
one of the chapters where
the curator gathered these
memories: “Discussion on
realism.” Because in the
end the dominant theme
of these reflections is
precisely that of realism, on |
which Sughi, with his own
brand of disarming sincerity,
expresses considerations
and asks questions that
could debunk some critics
who have classified his
production as an existential
realism parallel to Sartre’s
literary one.
Obviously Sughi has no such
certainties. “It’s not easy, he
writes, to distinguish true
and false, because they
often resemble each other.”
And since his writings cover
a long period of time, it is
possible to follow not only
his artistic career through
the specular reverberation
to be found in his words,
but also the life of realism |
from the 1952 birth of the
magazine that bears this
very name, when attention
paid to the human condition
was very strong, to the point
that it can remain in the
21st-century society “that
made - as Sughi writes -
communication, of all things,
the most routine aspect of
life.”
Beyond the artist’s
memoires, these pages
also contain the narrative
strength and inventiveness
that can appeal even
to those who are little
interested in art as a
profession, passion or
collection.
“As we age,” he confesses |
at a certain moment, “when
we feel the carefree time
of youth slipping away, we
seek to understand what
signs, what legacy we have
left, what was the meaning
of our life.” There is, all in
all, in the autobiography,
a sort of existential and
emotional tenor that draws
readers in well beyond their
interest in painting or the
painter. Because in “Il mio
lavoro di pittore”, in addition
to the artist, there is the
writer, who is well worth
reading. To clarify, it is worth,
mutatis mutandis, enjoying
Hermann Hesse’s water
colours after having read his novels. |
