1 LORENZO VIANI - EN
1 . Lorenzo Viani, 1930, monotype, 44 x 28 cm
The vertical work is a monotype depicting the right profile face of the painter and writer Lorenzo Viani. His gaze is directed forward and his expression is serene. A few marked features outline his distinctive features, such as his aquiline nose and thick hair. The monotype technique involves the creation of the drawing on a metal plate with chalcographic ink, followed by a single print on paper.
Insights
Catarsini’s relationship with Viani was long and intense. It began at least in 1919 and lasted until 1936, the year of the death of the venerated “master” to whom Catarsini dedicated many writings and drawings, such as this beautiful caricature that sketches his hooked profile with affectionate irony and fraternal sympathy.
The veneration for him remained unchanged even after his death, as evidenced by the long correspondence with his widow Giulia Viani, by the numerous portraits and by some penetrating writings, such as the one that appeared in 1968 in “Versilia Oggi” illustrated by a drawing that derives from the one preserved at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Viareggio.
1930 saw the end of a period characterized by a progressive intensification of his exhibition activity: in 1927 he participated in the National Exhibition of Landscape Art in Bologna and in 1928, in the first Regional Exhibition of Tuscan Art in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In the spring of 1929 he took part in the First Provincial Art Exhibition at the Palazzo del Governo in Lucca and, in July, he held his first solo exhibition at the Villa Paolina in Viareggio. In the following years he exhibited at the Golfo della Spezia Painting Award, at the invitation of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, a member of the jury together with Fillia, Casorati and Prampolini, and was constantly present at the Kursaal exhibitions in Viareggio, from the first edition in 1934 to the sixth in 1939, with quality paintings that interpreted the change in taste in Italian art in the mid-1930s.