Sculptor Giuliano Vangi
17 May 2001 - 16 June 2001

Giuliano Vangi was born in 1931 in Barberino di Mugello near Florence. He was a pupil of the sculptor Bruno Innocenti at the Porta Romana Institute of Arts, Florence. From 1950 to 1959 Vangi taught in the city of Pesaro and then worked in Brazil for three years. In 1967 the artist displayed his original sculptures at the exhibition in the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, after which his talent was greatly appreciated by the specialists and the public. The most interesting of the numerous exhibitions of the artist's works is indeed his one-man show organised in 1995 in Florence. There, Vangi's sculptures were displayed in the open air in unity with nature and architecture, which emphasised the integrity of Vangi's art and its links with the local artistic traditions. Today the artist works in the city of Pietrasanta, Toscana, where he created the majority of the works presented here. Recently Giuliano Vangi has produced several works devoted to religious themes, amongst which are the sculptures for the cathedrals in Padua and Pisa and the statue of John the Baptist for Florence. The artist's works are interesting in style and striking with their original modelling. The artist retaining adherence to traditional values, at the same time reveals contemporary life in all its variety. Technical devices, monumental forms and imagination have always constituted the creative potential of the artist. At the same time he tries to render the contemporary man's anxiety and perplexity. We can feel this in his figures, surrounded by glass walls or climbing over a wall, and stiff faces of women. A single detail - a gesture, a smile or a grin, an enigmatic expression of eyes or disharmony of a face - may present a somewhat complex combination of pathetic and tragic emotions. His Girl Standing (1986) shows a model both unconcerned and meditative, while the Woman in a Black Hat (1989) looks arrogant. Woman Turning Round (1986) draws the viewer's attention by the subtle change of facial expression, which is rather conveyed by the interplay of light and shade than by the faint motion of lips. Man Covering his Face with his Hands is also of interest. It seems that the hands of the man cover his inner tragedy guessed in his face. The style of Giuliano Vangi shows that the artist works in a masterly manner with any material, be it wood, marble or metal. The combination of various materials makes the sculptures polychromatic. The artist makes use of various materials, including metals and rare stones, which allow him to achieve a variety of colour and light. Although some of Giuliano Vangi's works resemble ancient Egyptian sculptures and some of them are reminiscent of figures from the Romanesque churches and even sometimes of works by the artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they nevertheless manifest the original style of Giuliano Vangi. The exhibition also features drawings by Giuliano Vangi that are preparatory sketches for his sculptural works. The most interesting of them are Man Running (1988), Man Keeping his Hands in his Pockets (1985), and a series of studies Man Covering his face with his Hands (1994).

Sergei Androsov, Head of the Sector of Painting and Sculpture of the 19th and 20th centuries of the Department of Western European Art, is the curator of the exhibition.

Man Seated
Giuliano Vangi
Larger view

Reclining Woman 2000
Larger view

Auremma
1987
Larger view