Thursday, May 16, 2013

Heebee Post #993 - Bruno Chiarlone - Cairo Montenotte - Italy

 Bruno sends in this noble and poignant postcard commemorating the great experimental art giant Shozo Shimamoto (1928 - 2013). Adorned in the colors of la bandiera Italiana (Italian flag) - it pays a sincere tribute to the legendary artist.


New York Times article by art critic Roberta Smith: "ART VIEW; When Art Became a Stage and Artists Actors" (April 5, 1998). She names Shimamoto as among the most daring experimentalists on the international art scene:"Perhaps driven by the exhilarating mixture of relief, freedom and despair that followed the end of World War II, artists around the world had been experimenting with newly physical, sometimes violent, cathartic ways of making paintings and sculptures. Others were also staging what they called events, or actions or performances that sometimes were as destructive as they were creative.
And in Japan, Shozo Shimamoto was symbolically penetrating the sacrosanct picture plane of painting by throwing himself through several layers of rice paper, leaving traces of the event -- the hole surrounded by jagged shards of paper -- as the work of art."

The wonderful Avant Garde artist shall be sorely missed by the entire world - but his myriad of works live on in many international museums and galleries.
 Meanwhile, back to Bruno's postcard.  This noble looking "2014 - CENTENARIO DI CAVELLINI" artistamp is a beautiful remembrance of the fabled Italian artist. Bruno really has the knack for rendering his images to somehow be perceived as important and meaningful - his artistic alchemy is always in full gear.  Myself and a legion of others around the world are waiting anxiously for the celebration of a Cavellini's 100th birthday (even though he has been gone for some time).  More on that as the event draws nearer.

Thank you very much Bruno, I love Shimamoto and Cavellini too. They were both monuments to mail art as well as their individual contemporary art scenes.
See you in the mail my friend.

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