ORAZI

ORAZI (who wrote his name in capital letters), was born in 1906 and died in 1979. He was a painter of the French School (École Française), mentioned as a member of the School of Paris (École de Paris or nouvelle École de Paris).
He regularly participated in different artistic groups in Paris, especially in the Salon de Mai (the May Salon), with works that evolved from expressionism to abstraction, and which was often characterized by materials in relief emerging from the composition (Painting in Relief). He returned to figurative painting in his latest phase.^[1]

Throughout his career, from 1934 until his death in 1979, he participated in a long series of exhibitions, including many solo exhibitions, mostly in Paris, but also elsewhere in France, Italy and Europe, America, and Japan. There have also been some post-humous solo exhibitions from 1980 to 2006. Subsequently in 2009, the American photographer and artist Peter Beard reproduced four paintings by ORAZI from his artistic phase Painting in Relief^[2] in the Pirelli Calendar of that year.

The name he adopted along his career was ORAZI, deriving from the Roman antiquity and represented in the artistic field - since the 17th century - by a series of artists of the same family tree, originating from the Bologna area in central Italy, but active in France. Among those artists, several had his same first name: Horace or, "Orazio".^[3]

Education: The first artistic phase

ORAZI was educated in Classical Studies and Literature. He started learning to play the piano in his youth as well as studying composition, then history of music; from secondary school, he studied painting and painting techniques. Towards the end of the 1920s he was in Venice. He was well integrated in that artistic milieu; Leonardo Dudreville considered him as a pupil,^[4] and in 1927 drew a portrait of him.^[5]

He had his first solo exhibition in 1934, in Milan, held at the art gallery ‘Pesaro’, and Dudreville wrote the foreword to the exhibition catalogue.

His paintings, dated 1934 and 1935, were exhibited at the ‘Quadriennale d’Arte Nazionale’, in Rome (Jasmine; Young woman resting with her cat), and at the Venice ‘Biennale’ (Wally; Young woman dressed in blue). Other paintings from 1936, 1937, and 1941 were commissioned and purchased by the Milanese art foundations ‘Ospedale Maggiore’^[6] and ‘Trivulzio’.^[7]

In 1937 the ‘Galerie de Paris’ organised his solo exhibition in Paris;^[8] in 1937 and 1938, he exhibited at the first and second Salon des Jeunes Artistes in Paris.^[9]

The works of those years, until approximately 1946-1948, were essentially portraits, still lives, landscapes, which reveal the distinctive elements in his paintings, such as the color, that takes a prominent place in the physical representation of objects and characters.^[10]

Artistic Maturity: Painting the Movement

After the years of anti-fascist struggle, he was among the artists of the new-born annual art exhibition of the Salon de Mai. It was organised first at the gallery ‘Pierre Maurs’ in avenue Matignon, then at the gallery ‘Arts’ in Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and later transferred to the Musée de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (in the modern building of the former Palais des Musées d'Art Moderne, then Palais de Tokyo). This is where he consistently exhibited his works, for over three decades^[11] until the year of his death.^[12]

In the introductory note to the 1979 Catalogue, La volonté de Continuer, his death was remembered by Gaston Diehl, Founding President of the Salon de Mai, with these words: « I care to remember those who have recently left us [...] and most especially two painters who were for so long faithful companions in our artistic path. ORAZI and BURTIN. » ^[13]

In 1952, ORAZI was appointed member of the Painting Section of the Salon d'Automne (Société du Salon d'Automne): the important Parisian annual exhibition with the aim to encourage the development of the fine arts.^[14]

From the end of the 1940s ORAZI developed the style which was called, by the French art critic Jean-Pierre Pietri, Peinture du Mouvement (Painting the Movement) for the search for dynamic and plastic effects of human gesture and animal movement.^[15] The paintings of that phase were approximately from 1948 to 1956.

A group of works was dedicated to Corridas on Horseback, as for example the large tempera Corrida, exhibited in Paris at the Salon de Mai of 1949.^[16] Other paintings represented workers' riots, and were characterized by strong colors that emphasized the movements and gestures of the crowd, as for example the Charge des Carabiniers (Police on Horseback Charge at Protesters) of 1949, and the Baguarre à la sortie de l'usine (Scuffle Outside a Factory), of 1950.

In the same period, ORAZI depicted the director Roberto Rossellini's Roma Città Aperta (Rome, Open City), a film considered the manifesto of Neorealism. His large tempera Rome Ville Ouverte, which represents the confrontation between the population of Rome and the Nazis during the liberation days, was exhibited at the Salon de Mai of 1950.^[17] Furthermore, through his tempera L'Exode (The Exodus) he depicted a long convoy of refugees fleeing the Nazi invasion: it was exhibited in Paris at the Salon d'Automne of 1952.^[18]
Another series from the Peinture du Mouvement was the one dedicated to Circus characters (clowns, horsewomen, riders, athletes, ballet dancers): these paintings were exhibited at the Salon de Mai, from 1950 to 1952, at the Salon d'Automne and the Biennale de Menton of 1953, and at his solo exhibition held at the ‘Galerie Marcel Bernheim’, in 1954.^[19]
In the artistic phase of the Peinture du Mouvement there were also paintings, dated from 1949 to 1953, representing the life of peasants. In particular, in the series called Cycle de la Sardaigne (Cycle on Sardinia) ORAZI depicted people, customs and traditions of Barbagia: this series was exhibited in Paris, in 1954, at the gallery ‘Marcel Bernheim’ and at the Salon d'Automne.^[20]
In the same year he was also invited to illustrate, by the French literary and art weekly publication ‘Les lettres Françaises’, the short-story titled The Story of a Soldier Who Brought a Cannon Home, written by the journalist and novelist Italo Calvino.^[21]
Then, he painted a series of large compositions depicting Historic Battles, as well as Carabineers on Horseback and Officers of the Dragoons: some of them were displayed at the Salon de Mai of 1955 and 1956, at the Salon des Indépendants of 1957, in Paris,^[22] as well as in Milan, at the art gallery ‘L'Annunciata’, in 1959.^[23]

Men and Nature in Mexico, Parisian Landscapes

ORAZI was passionate about landscapes. In the early 1950s he painted a series of French landscapes. Then, another search (not only in painting but also photography) drove him to Mexico, where he travelled in 1955 and 1956-1957: natural scenery, and traditions of the Mexicans were themes of his series of paintings called Cycle du Mexique (Cycle on Mexico or, Mexican Landscapes ). It was exhibited in Paris in 1957 in a solo exhibition, held at the art gallery ‘Vendôme’.^[24]

Upon his return in France, he applied himself to depicting Paris, at that time under the impact of vast demolitions (also in Montparnasse) and creation of new quarters. The paintings of that series, which is called Paysages Parisiens (Parisian Landscapes), reproduce the change of the urban landscape. They consist in views of the Banks of the Seine and of Montparnasse: in those compositions cranes, containers, and excavators represent modern Paris, while the péniches, the old houseboats, represent historic Paris.
Some of those paintings demonstrated the artist's break from figurative experience and the transition towards abstract painting.
The paintings on Paris were exhibited in 1959 at the Milanese art gallery 'L’Annunciata'.^[25]

Abstract art, Painting in Relief

From the end of the Fifties, ORAZI turned his work towards the Abstract art, to the art informel. He exhibited his paintings at the Salon de Mai of 1960 and 1961.^[26] This phase is represented by a solo exhibition held at the Parisian art gallery 'Galerie 7', in 1961.^[27]

Meanwhile, another search dominated the creativity of ORAZI: this phase (approximately 1958-1970) was characterised by the use of natural materials for creating shapes on the canvas surface. It was called Peinture en Relief (Painting in Relief) or, in some sources, Peinture Matiérique.

At the base of ORAZI's artistic exploration there were Nature, its elements, and its phenomena (flowers, sands, stones, rocks, volcanic lava, streams, sea shores, sea beds, eruptions, storms, petrified meteorites).^[28]

The works of that period were, at first, in low relief, and were exhibited at the Salon de Mai, in 1962, in Paris and in Tokyo.^[29]

Then, the relief became very high, and the shapes extended beyond the limits of the canvas: works of this kind were more than paintings, almost sculptures.^[30] They have been exhibited at several Salon de Mai, in Paris, from 1963 to 1979, as well as in other exhibitions in France and Europe, among which ORAZI's solo exhibition of 1966 at the art gallery 'Galerie du Passeur', in Paris.^[31]

Circular Line, Landscape-Heads, and Imaginary Landscapes

In the next phase (1970-1977), called Ligne Circulaire (Circular Line), ORAZI was back to two-dimensional painting. The paintings of this series reproduce the dimension of harmony of the universe, the birth and movements of the planets, and the vastness of the firmaments.

Moreover, in some paintings ORAZI represented the Mother Earth that embraces her creatures (insects, birds and flowers), or of the Moon, whose charming face is divided into different landscapes. Finally, a group of paintings called Têtes-Paysage (Landscape-Heads) should be mentioned. In these paintings ORAZI created mysterious human heads, or of fauns and mythological characters, which, however, form a sort of natural landscapes.

ORAZI was also a writer. His tale Stracco was published in 1974:^[32] the cover displays the image of the main character of the book which belongs to the group of Landscape-Heads.

The landscape - in all its manifestations - is a theme that continued to be essential for ORAZI, from his early artistic experience until his final years. A small group of paintings on which he was working between 1976-1977 and 1979, when he was in poor health, are called Paysages de l'Imaginaire (Imaginary Landscapes): the landscapes of this series are made up of gentle hills, illuminated by a soft lighting, and painted in simple lines and shapes, with delicate colours. They are the paintings of the last years of ORAZI.

The paintings of the Ligne Circulaire, Têtes-Paysage, and Imaginary Landscapes have been exhibited, a year after ORAZI's death, in a solo exhibition held in Paris, in 1980.^[33]

References