Carmelo Fertitta - Backlight

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, because of the lyricism implicit in views overlooking the sea or 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. In this painting, Carmelo Fertitta's research is completely focused on nature, but this does not prevent him from achieving a powerfully evocative and existential image, consistent with his pictorial poetics.

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 pictorial 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 this painting, entirely focused on the seascape, even though no reference is made to human presence, Carmelo Fertitta's pictorial style consistently maintains its realist and existential vocation. Indeed, nature is almost frozen by the painter in a rational grid of diagonal lines, which shifts reality to a metaphysical plane. But, once again, life returns in Fertitta's refined painterly touch. Here, it's truly remarkable how the artist plays with the opaque, silvery reflections of light on the water's surface, coming from the sun obscured by clouds.

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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