Surrealistic Romanticism of Classical Discipline
Art By Antonio Gattorno
About
GALLERY 5 Surrealistic Romanticism of Classical Discipline 1940 - 1949 This website is maintained by the Gattorno Foundation. Terri Cabral, President, holds the copyright for ALL Gattorno images. Use and reproduction of Gattorno images without permission is illegal. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Permission can be granted to use the images. Please email The Foundation for permission Gattorno's Exhibit Statement - 1944 Exhibit "I am convinced that before long there will be a renaissance of good taste which will restore the prestige of good painting. This will undoubtedly represent a difficult task, since it must bring to an end a movement which has long served its purpose and which has since become more intolerant that the academism it set out to destroy. It is my belief that this new movement is predestined to embrace "Surrealistic Romanticism" of Classical discipline. After many years of calculated changes, I have gradually returned to my early tendency in painting and it has been under this influence that I have prepared this group. For this presentation, I have deliberately treated one of my paintings in the "Double Image" formula. The subject involved compelled me to. I have done so without any fears of repercussion, since I do not consider such treatment a patrimony of any of my contemporaries. I trust that the balance of my work will confirm my adhesion to the movement in which I have faith." Antonio Gattorno [L-R] "Outside of an Interior", "Hitler's Portrait", "Espana" Gattorno considered this visually arresting, highly unsettling image to be "a historical document" and perhaps his most socially important piece. Strongly reminiscent of Bosch and Goya, it stands with such works as Picasso's "Guernica" as a significant statement of horror and revulsion at the carnage which ravaged Europe in World War II. The composition of Hittler's face consists of hanging bodies, brick walls and smoke. "Espana" (Spain) Oil on canvas – 1944 In her review of Gattorno's solo exhibit at the Passedoit Gallery on October 9, 1944, critic Emily Genauer said in the New York World Telegram, "Gattorno is a painter of extraordinary technical skill and uninhibited imagination. I could wish he did not suggest Dali as strongly as he does...Occasionally, however, Gattorno puts into his paintings a strength of conviction and a concern with world problems that sets them apart from Dali's dallyings. War Madonna, Italian Landscape and España are like that - and the best things at hand." In this painting, Gattorno presents a discourse on the moral collapse of Spain. The gored matador represents the Spanish people, exploited by the clergy and victimized by the Church’s sanctioning of the politics of bloodsport. The cadaverous head upon which the subjects stand represents the moral decay of Spanish culture. Classicism vs Buffoonery - 1943 Self-