Lucio CastagneriI met him one morning in May 1979, at the PCI section of via dei Giubbonari in Rome, when I was a young student of architecture. The occasion of the meeting was a public debate, among artists and intellectuals, about Giorgio de Chirico and his paintings, a few months after his death in Rome in November 1978. I, a young budding painter, went there because I was decidedly fascinated by Giorgio de Chirico's paintings but also, with the remote hope of being able to speak with one of those painters and show them the photos of my paintings. I was attracted to the world of painting and the artist's studio, and that was a first contact with that world.
I remember an interesting debate with testimonies from painters and art critics, all agreeing to feel orphaned and indebted to Giorgio de Chirico and his poetic metaphysical, a pictorial avant-garde of early 20th-century Italy. Among those who intervened, there was a young, tall and disheveled, I would dare say even lanky, with a decidedly non-Roman accent who participated in the debate supporting arguments with rigor and emphasis, he was Lucio Castagneri.
As the assembly concluded, I gathered courage and went to him, I stopped him in the middle of the stairs that led from the basement room to above. Timidly I said who I was and why I was there to listen, then I asked him if I could show him the photos of my paintings to have a judgment, he said yes. He looked at them quickly, smiling, and then also responded yes to the request to take painting lessons. The following week I started attending his home-studio, on the top floor of an old building in the historic center, in via Belsiana in Rome, which he shared with Ornella, companion and inspiring muse.
I later learned that he was born in Genoa in 1947, that he studied classics and then came to Rome to graduate in Law, which he did not love and suffered to please his family. In fact, after storing away his law studies, he immediately began to train as a painter. He studied figure drawing with Gustav Rehberger at the Art Student League in New York and later in Rome at the Poligrafico and Zecca dello Stato, when he attended a training course for engravers directed by Lino Bianchi Barrivera.
After a few years of apprenticeship with Lucio, I lost contact, but I continued to follow his exhibitions in Rome until 1998. In the following years, I learned about his stays abroad and the exhibitions held not only in Rome and Italy, but also in the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, United States, Luxembourg, Tunisia. The major Italian art critics have written about him. In recent years, he has shared painting with other talents he had within him by writing books on ancient mythology, theatrical comedies of which he is also the director and sometimes actor.
His painting speaks to us about everyday life, delves into the capital vices in which we can lose ourselves, also describes a hardworking humanity, lover of nature, aspiring to harmony and the quiet of the soul. He does so with a pictorial culture that draws from the ancient with a modern interpretative freshness. He has a happy hand in composing the scene, plastic figures, colors that enhance the shapes and give light.
I believe it can be said that Lucio Castagneri's pictorial world, on the one hand, draws inspiration from the surrounding reality, from the everyday life of a humanity aware of the tragedy of life and the need for happiness, on the other hand, is inspired by the mythological tales of the classical world, almost suggesting a possible way to understand our life and to extend our gaze towards a new world in harmony with nature.
Fonte: le foto sono tratte da https://www.luciocastagneri.it/
Come si concluse l’assemblea presi coraggio e andai da lui, lo fermai nel bel mezzo delle scale che dalla sala del piano interrato portavano sopra. Timidamente dissi chi ero e perché ero lì ad ascoltare, poi gli chiesi se potevo fargli vedere le foto dei miei quadri per avere un giudizio, mi disse di sì. Le guardò velocemente sorridendo e poi rispose di sì anche alla richiesta di prendere lezioni pittura. La settimana dopo cominciai a frequentare la sua casa-studio, all’ultimo piano di un vecchio palazzo del centro storico, in via Belsiana a Roma, che condivideva con Ornella, compagna e musa ispiratrice.
Di lui seppi poi che era nato a Genova nel 1947, che aveva fatto studi classici per poi venire a Roma e laurearsi in Giurisprudenza, che non amava e che subì per compiacere la famiglia. Difatti, archiviati gli studi in legge iniziò da subito a formarsi come pittore. Aveva studiato disegno di figura con Gustav Rehberger all’Art Student League di New York e successivamente a Roma presso il Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, quando frequentò un corso di formazione per incisori a bulino diretto da Lino Bianchi Barrivera.
Di Lucio, dopo alcuni anni di apprendistato persi i contatti, ma continuai a seguire le sue mostre a Roma fino al 1998. Negli anni che susseguirono appresi dei suoi soggiorni all’estero e delle mostre tenute oltre che a Roma e in Italia, in Olanda, Canada, Svezia, Stati Uniti, Lussemburgo, Tunisia. Di lui anno scritto i maggiori critici d’arte italiani. In quest’ultimi anni ha condiviso la pittura con altri talenti che aveva in seno scrivendo libri sulla mitologia antica, commedie teatrali di cui è anche regista e a volte attore.
La sua pittura, ci parla del quotidiano, entra in profondità nei vizi capitali in cui possiamo perderci, descrive anche una umanità laboriosa e amante della natura, che aspira all’armonia e alla quiete dell’anima. Lo fa forte di una cultura pittorica che attinge all’antico con una freschezza interpretativa moderna. Ha la mano felice nel comporre la scena, figure plastiche, colori che esaltano le forme e danno luce.
Credo che si possa dire che il mondo pittorico di Lucio Castagneri, per un verso, trae ispirazione dalla realtà che lo circonda, dalla quotidianità di una umanità consapevole della tragicità della vita e il bisogno di felicità, per l’altro, si ispira ai racconti mitologici del mondo classico quasi a suggerire una possibile via per capire il nostro vivere e allungare lo sguardo verso un mondo nuovo in armonia con la natura.
Fonte: le foto sono tratte da https://www.luciocastagneri.it/