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Strange person Pablo Picasso, bizarre genius and powerful presence, not only in the History of Art worldwide but also in his private affections and relationships with colleagues and friends. For those who wish to traverse his life, from his great artistic achievements to his more fragile private relationships, there is a comprehensive and well-written biography considered almost a bible of the artist. It was written by Patrick O’Brian, a British writer, essayist and translator, and he did it thanks both to his direct acquaintance with Picasso and by studying the literature and documents about him.

This book interests us because it is a biography that draws art lovers into a history within history, it is didactic and at the same time flows like a novel.

Patrick O’Brian, Picasso. A Biography, Longanesi, 2023 (new edition)

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The visual illiteracy of italians

“From elementary school, our children should immediately learn to ‘see’, to associate art, cinema, literature, and history.” Vincenzo Trione in Corriere della Sera, June 25, 2024

Since 2023, Studio Gariboldi has been offering the public and collectors a series of meetings and courses aimed at providing tools to approach artworks from different perspectives. In the gallery, on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings, once a month, original human creatures take turns for reflections and views on the world.

“One of the greatest challenges of this moment is finding an effective key to offer a more in-depth and comprehensive vision of the work of artists and the historical period in which they are situated. At the same time, to train the eye of those who visit my gallery. Whether they are students doing internships or the general public. To see, one must know how to look, and this is not taught in any school.” Giovanni Gariboldi in Italics, June 2024

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Worker, couchette attendant on night trains, graphic designer, Frédéric Pajak has known extreme poverty and, through poetry, writing, and drawing, has managed to find his rightful place in the world. The book “Van Gogh, a Biography,” translated by Nicolò Petruzzella, is a mixture of words and images, Pajak’s drawings, and the reconstruction of a special life, like all lives, but just a little more so.

We are interested in it because it is profoundly human, especially in the poignant ink drawings created by the author.

“Pajak has invented a new genre, the ‘graphic essay’. Or perhaps he didn’t invent it, but what is certain is that he has brought it to its most perfect form.” Le Nouvel Observateur

Frédéric Pajak, “Van Gogh, una biografia”, dalla serie Manifesto Incerto, L’Orma editore, 2023

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Many of us are used to taking notes during our travels, to not forget, to reflect once we return home, to collect moments. In his book Le città del mondo, Eraldo Affinati offers us his perspective and thoughts on the three hundred cities of his life. Rome and the Garden of Oranges, Tirana and the squares reminiscent of De Chirico’s paintings, Moscow and the Church of St. John the Warrior. Places that the author has visited in reality, in imagination, or has dreamed of.

This book interests us because it is a labyrinth that evokes worlds at every turn and pushes us to create just as many. Three hundred fertile pages, capable of lighting up insights and a question: How many cities are there in our lives? Just to answer that question, it would be worth picking up a pen and starting to list them.

Eraldo Affinati, Le città del mondo, Feltrinelli, 2024

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Panorama Monferrato

Our gallery is participating in the Panorama Monferrato project, which will take place from September 4th to 8th, 2024.

Panorama Monferrato will feature an exhibition curated by Carlo Falciani, involving 61 galleries with site-specific works. Within the project, Studio Gariboldi will present a piece by the artist Salvatore Scarpitta.

The Panorama project offers a widespread exhibition in the picturesque locations of Monferrato, aiming to create a “special narrative” that unites ancient, modern, and contemporary art. Inspired by the 1574 dialogue by Stefano Guazzo, which promoted “civil conversation” as a tool for mediation and community growth, the exhibition unfolds across four towns (Camagna, Vignale, Montemagno, Castagnole), interpreting the journey as an initiatory experience. Each stage addresses themes ranging from daily contrasts to the spirituality of art, proposing art as a means to understand and confront current and future social transformations.

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Italics interviews Giovanni Gariboldi

“Sometimes a work modifies the space, other times it’s the opposite. In my work, I try to find resonances and connections or I work with contrasts, but always seeking harmony in the whole.”
Giovanni Gariboldi

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“The story is not in the image, but in our relationship with the image, in what it deposits within us.”

From this consideration, Bertrand Schefer writes the book “Francesca Woodman,” a short narrative that talks about her, seeks her out, reconstructs her, and aims to save her from oblivion, not so much as an artist, now consecrated, but as a human being. Woodman is a star that leaves a powerful luminous trail, entering the empyrean of art with frightening speed and, in that same fear, leaves the earth of her own will at twenty-three years old. The author, at times moving, at times capable of surprising, leaves us with questions and reflections on the power of photographic images and some unknown elements about her. We are (very) interested because it emphasizes how the gaze that touches the surface of an image can satisfy the pleasure of a moment and at the same time push us to search for depth. Especially when we are faced with a work of art. It is a possibility, not an obligation, and we believe it is worth it.

Bertrand Schefer, Francesca Woodman, Johan & Levi Editore, 2024.