"The sun, the sea, the lovers"

ALBERTO SUGHI

Alberto Sughi, a painter belonging to the Realist current, was born in Cesena on October 5, 1928 and made his debut as a painter in the early 1950s. He immediately chose the path of realism, as part of the debate between abstract and figurative art in the immediate postwar period. Sughi's paintings, however, eschew any social temptation; rather, they stage moments of everyday life without heroes. Enrico Crispolti in 1956 framed his painting within the framework of existential realism. Alberto Sughi's research proceeds by thematic cycles. At the end of the 1950s, his work is based on the existence of man in the context of the society protagonist of the economic "boom," emphasizing the social loneliness of the individual through the narration of situations in places such as streets, bars, cinemas (ex:La scalinata sul Lungotevere, 1959, II grande bar, 1959-60). In the early 1960s, he explores the human condition in its private side, in loneliness caught within domestic intimacy (the undressing figures, the lovers, the man with the dog). In '64-'65 sociological criticism is the protagonist, (in the large paintings "Politicians at the Reception," "The Managerial Class," or again the monumental triptych "The Historic Hour"). The years from '71 to '73" the so-called Green Paintings, dedicated to the relationship between man and nature (1971-1973), then the cycle The Supper (1975-1976) focused on the situation of man in the private sphere. To the early 1980s belong the twenty paintings and fifteen studies in Imagination and Memory of the Family; since 1985 the series Evening or Reflection has been ongoing. The last series of paintings, exhibited in 2000, is entitled Notturno. In 1963 one of his works was shown in the exhibition Contemporary Italian Paintings, held in a number of Australian cities. In 1963-64 he exhibited at the exhibition Peintures italiennes d'aujourd'hui, organized in the Middle East and North Africa In the 1960s and 1970s he collaborated with some of Italy's best-known galleries offering figurative art, including La Barcaccia in Rome and Pier Della Francesca in Arezzo, which remained the master's galleries of reference for a long time. From the 1980s to 2000, Sughi's exhibition activity saw significant shows in public spaces in Italy and around the world, as well as exhibitions in various galleries in Italy and abroad. Italian and foreign museums have dedicated extensive anthological reviews to Sughi; among them are the Gallery of Modern Art in Bologna (1977), the Manege Gallery in Moscow (1978), the Museum of Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the National Gallery in Prague (1986), the Civic Gallery of Modern Art in Ferrara (1988), the Casa Masaccio in San Giovanni Valdarno (1990), the Assis Chateaubriand Museum of Art in São Paulo, Brazil (1994), and the Civic Museum of Sansepolcro (2003). The artist participated in the cycle of exhibitions " The Search for Identity" in Cagliari, Palermo and Ascoli Piceno (2003-2004), and in the exhibition "Il Male. Esercizi di pittura crudele" at the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, Turin (2005) and the exhibition "Il Ritratto Interiore da Lotto a Pirandello," at the Museo Archeologico Regionale, Aosta (2005). In early 2006 a major anthological exhibition of Sughi's work was held at the Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma. In 2007 two major anthological exhibitions of Sughi were presented at the Biblioteca Malatestiana in Cesena, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, and at the Complesso Vittoriano in Rome, curated by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle. In 2009 Alberto Sughi's work was presented in Palermo at Palazzo Sant'Elia in a new major retrospective curated by Maurizio Calvesi. Of his formative years the painter says, "When I came to Rome in 1948 we slept on benches, in basements and life was poor. There had been war and so sleeping in places like that seemed normal to us, we didn't feel it as a suffering, as we might feel it today, and what kept us going was the desire to be painters, to have a different way of thinking, because there was great ferment, the older painters were talking and we all wanted to learn and do it together. It was and is all very good because passion has always illuminated my work, even in the difficulties." From the earliest years, Sughi's paintings are affected by the debate between abstractionism and figurativism, and while portraying various aspects of metropolitan life, he does not allow himself to be caught up in the heated political life, preferring to stage moments of everyday life without heroes in a figurative form that art historian and critic Enrico Crispolti calls "existential realism." Alberto Sughi's artistic journey proceeds, consistently, by thematic cycles, which have the flavor of a film sequence. Of this artistic journey the painter says, "I am interested in the journey, that journey faced with different consciousnesses. I hope to never stray from what I am, to continue to pick up the signals that come from life and the world. I can tell you that I am happy with what I have done and with my life that has given me so much and I would never change it with any other. I try to be faithful to it by working to the limit. I want to stay together with me, my painting and my life without thinking about whether I will do good things or not good things and I would really like to end up inside my work." Of the meaning and philosophy of his works, Alberto Sughi says in an interview, " I represented loneliness, the relationship with nature, the theater of Italy, I did everything that basically I could meet and know in the moments of this country. For example, in the painting I am doing (pointing to a large canvas in his studio, ed.), I am depicting two men sitting on a beach while there is a stormy sea, as if they do not realize that it is no longer the time to be there. My paintings, as in this case, have always reflected the relationship between me and myself and between myself and the rest of things. And looking at the canvas I think it can turn into something else." Sughi died in Bologna on March 31, 2012.