The bond between pictorial and culinary art strengthens in the passing of the years, just think of the wine labels chosen by our restaurant: the white reproduces a fresco painted on one of the restaurant’s walls, signed by one of the greatest contemporary Italian artists: Ugo Attardi, painter of Sicilian origin, born in Sori (GE) in 1923, he has exhibited his works in the world’s major capital cities, we want to remember his bas-relief “I Sogni del Re Normanno” (The Dreams of the Norman King) in Buenos Aires, or the sculpture “Ulisse” (Ulysses) in Battery Park, New York and at Palazzo Valentini in Rome.

The red wine label, on the other hand, is the outcome of an evening with friends: in 1989 the film director F.F. Coppola is in Rome to film “The Godfather: Part III”, the Antica Pesa is the most suitable place to refresh his spirit and satisfy his taste. With the director there is one of the most important contemporary American artists: Keith Haring, who died tragically in the ‘90’s, and who, at the end of the evening, leaves us a souvenir. On the restaurant’s headed paper he designs what is now an international icon, the simple stylized sketch of a little man that has travelled round the world; the labels of the bottles with the design signed by the artist which still enliven the tables at the Antica Pesa take us back to the emotions of that unforgettable evening in June.

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ARTISTS

LUIGI MONTANARINI (Florence, 22 July 1906)

Painter, designer, mosaicist, autodidact. From 1930 to 1940 he orients his painting towards the “Scuola Romana”, a rather articulated group of artists active in Rome in the ’20’s - 40’s, whose language has characteristics that add a more or less expressionist viewpoint and particular tonal values to the ufficial modernism. In 1928-29 there are already the first protagonists of an anti-twentieth century trend, with strong expressive tones, those of the so-called Via Cavour School (definition proposed by Roberto Longhi), and namely Scipione (1904-1933), Mario Mafai (1902-1965) and his wife Antonietta Raphäel (1900-1975) and Marino Mazzacurati. Since 1950 his research leads him to a change aimed towards the abstract–informal movement. Present in numerous exhibitions, both personal and collective, he goes beyond the ocean, exhibiting also in New York.

CARLO QUATTRUCCI (Painter, designer, poet)

What immediately strikes you in depth in Carlo Quattrucci’s remarkable graphic and pictorial works is the quantity of constant anxiety that cannot be disregarded, which, for the artist, represents one of the most direct possibities to place himself in the contemporary world. Quattrucci aims at recuperating the values of the historical past (with works such as “Il tiranno e lo specchio” (The tyrant and the mirror); “Generalissimo franco” (Very generally frank), reactivating them and reproposing them in a lyrical-ideological dimension, or better still, tension. By confronting the most varied “objects”: a man or a horse, a flower or a bird, a leaf or a landscape, a stone or a fossile, Quattrucci has always succeeded in finding the path of poetry and of grace. A poem of protest: Beyond the simple “appearance” of the images the trace of the incredible encounter–clash of the artist with the anonymous crowd, with a wild crowd, with an innocuous crowd, with a deliberately suicidal crowd.His work unwinds itself between instinct, poetry and fantasy, with a subtle, penetrating irony, punctual. Carlo Quattrucci commits suicide in Rome in his studio on Via della Lungara, a shot and then the silence.

ALBERTO GASPARRI (Clandestine artist)

Far away from trends and the easier art circuits, Alberto Gasparri paints for over thirty years in splendid isolation. Solitary, unreachable, he develops his research in a place that certainly cannot be defined as a decadent ivory tower in which, far from competition and confrontation he dreams or devoting himself to everlasting fame: it is, rather, a place in which the artist is able to leave the space that history has bent him into, opening out towards the immense expanse of what is possible. (Emma Ercoli) Alberto Gasparri also has an original history as a painter of the mundane reality. In his paintings of nocturnal divisions and prefigurations he has found astonishing images to express today’s desolation and emptiness, but he also says that the future has roots in our present and that this present plunges into the great depths and layers of the memory and history... (Dario Micacchi) Alberto Gasparri begins to exhibit as early as 1959, in Paris, Rome, New Delhi, New York, Athens, San Francisco, Washington and Venice. He has also devoted himself to poetry, with three publications, “Prima guida Poetica italiana” (First guide to the art of Italian poetry); “Poetical”. From ’60 to ’90 he takes part in various theatrical events; at Teatro Belli; S. Saba; Folk Studio and others. He has been interested in cinema since ‘67/’68, with the realization of short films, we remember “Superstar” super 8 (New York) with A.Warhol, J.Malanga, A.Di Biagio, J.D.Alessandro. Dario Micacchi, Renato Nicolini, Emma Ercoli, Gregory Corso, Cecilia Ribaldi, Roberto Trovato and others have written about him.

LORENZO TORNABUONI (Rome, 17 July 1934)

Autodidact, he expresses an expressionist figuration in his works. The composition of Lorenzo Tornabuoni’s painting reveals an informal deliberateness. The neutral shades on dark backgrounds evidence reds and blues. The series of work titled “Bagno Turco” (Turkish Bath) and that of the “Canottieri” (Oarsmen) are particularly memorable. Present in numerous personal exhibitions held in galleries and public spaces in various Italian communes and cities.

RICCARDO TOMMASI FERRONI(Pietrasanta, 4 December 1934)

Surrealist, cultured and refined intellectual, he has a degree in the humanities and is lecturer at the Academy of San Luca.
Since 1964 his works have been exhibited in various personal and collective exhibitions, Fadal, Almansi, Guzzi, Simongini, Valsecchi and Trombadori have written about him. “...but what do Tommasi Ferroni’s paintings want from me? Do they want to astound me with the excellence of their technical execution or disgust me with their allusion to a world that is falling into ruin? Do they want to console me with a composed and absorbed vision in which even some of the characters’ sinister faces and the bags of rubbish partecipate in the structure of what is obvious, or do they want to shake me away from the safety of an organised world and make me sensitive to the moment of insight, to the magic moment, to Wardsworth’s “spot of time”...? ” (G.Almansi)

UGO ATTARDI (Sora 12 March 1923)

Painter, sculptor, engraver, he started studying architecture at art school. In ’45, after one year, he left the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo and moved to Rome. In ’47 he established “Forma Uno” together with P.Dorazio, C.Accardi, P.Consagra, A.Sanfilippo and others. In 1952/54 he was invited to exhibit at the Biennial Exhibition of Modern Art in Venice, in these years he began to make engravings, which were an organic and not casual development of his activity. He initially exhibited in Italy and in Prague, Moscow, Berlin, Los Angeles, London and New York. In 1961 he established the “Il Pro e il Contro” (The For and the Against) movement. The large bas-relief “Addio Che Guevara” (Goodbye Che Guevara), the first of his big works in wood, dates back to 1968. In 1974 he had a quantity of bronze melted down in a full relief in which the smoothness of the bodies’ surfaces reaffirmed the important classical tradition of the Renaissance. In 1987 he was invited to the Biennial Exhibition in Venice again, between 1990 and 1992 he was engaged in the making of the “Nelle Americhe” (In the Americas) monument. The manifesto of the group is published in the first copy of the magazine with the same name, issued in March of that year. “Abstract art is no longer only breaking” you can read “but is action for a new culture”.

TOYO MASUSHIMA (Tokyo, 1943)

Toyo Masushima’s work takes place and is established in both the East and the West. After attending the Art Academy in his hometown he very soon transfers to Italy where, passionate for classical painting, he studies and runs through the important stages of our Renaissance again. He is involved in the experiences and debates that animate Rome in the ‘70’s, and it is at this time that he completes his research aimed at a symbolic abstraction, where the gesture and the colour are the patient recollection of Japanese calligraphy. He is present in numerous exhibitions, both personal and collective, with testimonies of the major international critics.

DAVID ZED (T. Bilisi, 1938)

Painter, designer, engraver, esoteric artist, as if in alchemic spiritual laboratory his works blend his passion for classical painting and the vibrant lacerations of contemporary research, where the iconlessness of the past ten years was already present and alive in his very early works. He soon left his country, a tireless traveller, curious and cultured, from each journey he brings back a sound, a perfume and a sign that become colour and message. Present in numerous exhibitions, both personal and collective, he goes beyond the ocean, exhibiting also in New York.

MARTIN BRADLEY (Richmond - Surrey 1931)

Painter, sculptor, lyric abstractionist. Bradley’s work is complex, it induces memories and recollections, inviting you to reflect, to go along the itineries of your memory again, to relive emotions. And this is, depending on the levels of interpretation, distinct and, at times, compact. A constant wandering exploration in the pictorial field, conceived as absolute freedom of route, in agreement with his hands. “The happiness of the encounters and their conversing in a logical composition, bestowed on the image, like an essential privilege ...”(R.Crivelli) He has held exhibitions throughout the world with testimonies of the major international critics.

MARK KOSTABI

Artist and Composer Mark Kostabi was born in Los Angeles in 1960 to Estonian immigrants. He was raised in Whittier, California and studied drawing and painting at Californi State University, Fullerton. In 1982 he moved to New York and by 1984 he became leading figure of the East Village art scene. During that time he also developed a provocative media persona by publishing self-interviews which commented on the commodification of contemporary art. By 1987 his works were widely exhibited in New York galleries and prominentlythroughout the United States, in Japan, Germany and Australia. In 1988, inspiring extensive international press coverage, he founded Kostabi World - his large New York studio known for openly employing numerous painting assistants and idea people. In 1996 be began dividing his time between New York and Rome and consequently his work's already strong presence in the Italian art scene was vigorously enhanced. Kostabi produces a weekly cable TV show, Name That Painting, where noted art critics compete to title his paintings for cash awards. He writes an advice column for artists, Ask Mark Kostabi, for Artnet.com. Kostabi has designed album covers for Guns 'N' Roses (Use Your Illusion) and The Ramones (Adios Amigos) and numerous products including a Swatch watch, limited-edition vases, espresso cups, computer accessories and a Giro d'Italia pink jersey. Kostabi is also known for his many collaborations with other artists including Enzo Cucchi, Arman, Howard Finster, Tadanori Yokoo and Enrico Baj. Kostabi's music has been performed internationally by orchestras and soloists including Rein Rannap, Kristjan Jarvi, Maano Manni, Delilah Gutman, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and Kostabi himself. His CDs are: I Did It Steinway, Songs For Sumera and New Alliance. Retrospective exhibitions of Kostabi's paintings have been held at the Mitsukoshi Museum in Tokyo (1992) and the Art Museum of Estonia in Tallinn (1998). Kostabi's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, The National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and the Groninger Museum in Holland. His permanent public works include a mural in Palazzo dei Priori in Arezzo, Italy and a large bronze sculpture in the central square of San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy Kostabi has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, A Current Affair, Nightwatch (with Charlie Rose), The Oprah Winfrey Show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Nonsolomoda, West 57th, CNN, MTV and numerous television programs throughout Europe and Japan. In print he has been featured in The New York Times, People, Vogue, The Face, Playboy, Forbes, New York Magazine, Domus, Corriera Della Sera, Panorama, Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Flash Art, Arte, Arte In and Tema Celeste. The many books published about Kostabi include Sadness Because the Video Rental Store Was Closed, Kostabi: The Early Years, Conversations with Kostabi, The Rhythm of Inspiration, Mark Kostabi and the East Village Scene 1983-1987 and Mark Kostabi in the 21st Century.