Carmelo Fertitta - Boat in Mazzaro

Landscape has always been a central theme in artistic research, both as a setting, as a backdrop, and as a subject itself. The naturalistic depiction of landscape has been a constant aspiration for painters. Each historical period has offered its own interpretation of landscape, contributing to the evolution of its depiction: first with an exploration of space, through Brunelleschi's perspective in the early Renaissance; then with atmospheric rendering in the 16th century; up until the depiction of every single vibration of light on objects in Impressionism. The "seascape" in particular is a recurring theme among artists. First, for the lyricism implicit in views overlooking the sea or in romantic images of small harbors. Second, because the depiction of aquatic surfaces allows painters to give free rein to their chromatic flair, thanks to refined interplays of reflections and reverberations. Typical of Carmelo Fertitta's work are images of fishing boats moored on the beach, where human presence is overlooked and the artist lets nature and objects speak for themselves, protagonists of a direct narrative, unfiltered by idealization. Fishing boats in the marinas, like fruit stalls in markets, appear abandoned, and Fertitta recalls human activity like an image from memory, evoked by the intense vibrations of his pictorial style.

Carmelo Fertitta's style, in both his cityscapes and seascapes, presents a perfect fusion of realism and a vivid impressionistic rendering of sensory details. On the one hand, the artist precisely describes the view in all its details, with a strong sense of urban or maritime reality and the everyday life of simple life. On the other, his refined painting technique allows him to convey a sense of existential immediacy to the canvas, thanks to brushstrokes charged with atmospheric vibrations. Light thus reverberates on objects, but without interfering with the precise description of reality, and the artist can modulate light and shadow with great naturalism. In his seascapes featuring fishing boats, seemingly abandoned on the shore, Carmelo Fertitta's painting takes on an even more existential quality. Reality seems immersed in a metaphysical stillness from which only the artist's brushstrokes, even more vibrant in these subjects, can bring it to life. In Carmelo Fertitta's marine paintings, the palette takes on neutral gray tones, with a few pops of warm colors evoking activity and life. The texture becomes slightly more textured and dense with color.

Carmelo Fertitta was born in 1911 in Gioiosa Marea. He spent his childhood in Tripoli, Libya, where the colors of the earth and the desert influenced his warm, light-filled palette. After graduating from the University of Naples and earning a teaching qualification in drawing and science, he won a public education competition and became principal of a school in Merano. However, the call to arms at the outbreak of war ended his brief scholastic career. After the conflict, he began a managerial career in the Postal Administration, serving as Provincial Director in Macerata, Ancona, and finally, from 1962, in Palermo. His return to Sicily and the colors of his past provided renewed impetus for his artistic production. His first solo exhibition was held in Cagliari at the Galleria "Golfo degli Angeli" in the summer of 1960. From then on, numerous solo and group exhibitions of national importance followed. In 1963 he exhibited at the Galleria Marguttiana in Rome, in 1964 in Milan, and in 1966 again in Rome at the Galleria del Palazzo delle Esposizioni. He won numerous prestigious awards, including first prize for Figurative Arts at the Third National Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Rome in 1972. In 1974, he won another first prize at the Fifth National Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Rome. He continued to win prestigious awards, including the Oscar Accademia Italia in 1985 and 1991, and the first prize "Artists for Peace" at the La Spezia Art Biennale. Carmelo Fertitta passed away in 1995. His works are held at the Institute for the Diffusion of Figurative Arts in Milan, at the Cultural Center of Saint John's University in New York, in the Muretto di Alassio collection of famous artists, in public institutions, art galleries, consulates, art galleries, and in prestigious private and public collections in Italy, France, Germany, and the United States. His graphic works are held at the Max Bollag Modern Art Gallery in Zurich, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Fondazione Europa in Milan, and the Accademia in Turin.

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