In the historical rooms of Palazzo Pretorio in Sondrio, thanks to an initiative of the Department of Culture and with the cooperation of the famous Italian Ada Zunino gallery of sculpture of Milan, we are once again able to see the works of Giovanna Gadda, a singular figure of Italian art and culture. Flashes of shapes, lines and colours freed into space with the poetry that has always surrounded the working integrity of the Lombard artist, born in Sesto San Giovanni in 1930, and who, alongside classical subjects has nourished her colourful geometry of artistic studies, including the “Liceo Artistico” and the stage-design course at the Brera Academy, resulting in her living teaching like a sacred mission.
What artistically marked the poetics of our painter was her attendance in 1968 in Salzburg of the International Kokoschka School in close contact with Emilio Vedova, a leading figure of world art. Nor should it be forgotten that our painter, also active in sculpting, through a sort of mobile machines where the paintings to be skipped through are read like pages, has always been treated by the most accredited critics (Enzo Fabiani, Flavio Caroli, Carlo Franza, Raffaele De Grada, Milena Milani, Osvaldo Patani) as a strong promise of Italian painting, sometimes isolated, far from exhibitionisms, but real and participant in the most ossified culture. This public exhibition, which today pays tribute to the artist, sheds light on her works, the cultured atmosphere of her creations which like vapours rise in a new and singular atmosphere.
Celestial and earthly landscapes that recount strong emotions, where the colours, from the most intense to the softer shades combine in a tensional harmony, creating openings, corollas, flashes, fluorescences, far from any figurative division and achieving on the other hand that atmosphere of abstract-informal art prompted by current research. It must be said that her life has been dotted with singular stages and stations, starting with the Scalini award in 1953, up to TV and theatre experiences with Memo Benassi and Salvo Randone, to the prestigious one-man and collective exhibition staged throughout Italy, and finally the work done under the watching eye of Ada Zunino, the only real Italian gallery manager, recognised the world over for the integrity, strength and culture she has put into recounting the most significant events of Italian and international art during the past thirty years.
The work which colour-wise, whether oils or pastels, Giovanna Gadda intends today, is to be found in all that borderline which, from Klee up to Tancredi gives back voice to a spirit, to a thought, to a subtle atmosphere that travels around superhuman worlds The colours and the shapes of her paintings are felt by way of a sensitivity that few as if by magic manage to show, and live an absolute freedom. Giovanna Gadda is a frank and meaningful presence in Italian painting.
Forget the deceit and oversimplified interpretation of those who still think that art follows traditionalist models. Today a neo-neo, or better neo-informal and neo-abstract art exists that acts as true current history and Gadda is one of the gang.
T raslated by Interpres sas