Antonio Zambrella (Lucanino) - Veiled Woman

Portraiture is one of the most widespread artistic expressions, especially in painting, but also in sculpture, throughout the ages. Portraiture is, first and foremost, a description of the depicted subject, an attempt to convey their physiognomy and individual characteristics truthfully and naturally. With the progressive evolution of artistic research, the physiognomic description of the subject has also been accompanied by a psychological one. Therefore, over the centuries, portraiture has also become a means of introspective investigation of the subject, their character, and their state of mind. The processes of abstraction brought about by contemporary art have contributed to this type of investigation. The pictorial production of Antonio Zambrella, known as Lucanino, focused on female faces, through which he developed his own expressionist-symbolist language.

Antonio Zambrella's female faces, not only in their primordially matriarchal subjects, but also and above all in the language he uses, seem to hark back to an archaic conception of art. Indeed, there is a clear reference to Symbolist art in the way the figures are depicted generically, stripped of their individual features, to take on an iconic character. The representation thus transcends the contingent to take on broader meanings. Formally, Lucanino favors a composition that enhances the plasticity of the subjects, who are immersed in a concrete, yet decontextualized, space. Despite the essentially ancient character of his female figures, Zambrella succeeds in recontextualizing his artistic language in a contemporary vein.

Antonio Zambrella, known as Lucanino, was born in Bernalda in 1934. Here he began his early career as a sculptor, honing his skills over time by modeling clay. He recreated faces and objects he found around him before turning to drawing and painting as a teenager. Upon reaching Emilia-Romagna, he met his future wife. Zambrella presented Basilicata in over 120 exhibitions around the world. The Italian Academy of Arts, Letters and Sciences in Salsomaggiore awarded him the gold medal in 1978. In 1982, he received the New York Prize, the Washington Oscar in Milan in 1984, and the Golden Pantheon in Bologna. The artist passed away in the Emilian capital in 2020.

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