Thursday, June 7, 2007

Introduction

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On the occasion of the fifth Venetian exhibition of Icilio Martich - Severi, Dr. Vincenzo Aurigemma wrote in the introduction to the catalogue, the following words:
"This continuous search is doubtless one of the characteristics of the artist’s inner being. A constant factor in his work as an artist - a joy and also a burden for him - is the invention of ever new ‘modes’ of expression."
Fifteen years later, the artist James Gleeson wrote a dismissive review, criticizing Martich - Severi’s plethora of styles, and proclaiming that ‘none of them work’.
Icilio Martich - Severi is at the time of writing virtually unknown to the wider Australian public. The words of Dr. Aurgemma, written in 1950, touches one of the core reasons. When the artist and critic, James Gleeson, dismissed Martich - Severi in 1965 as ‘an artist in search of a style’ , he not only completely misunderstood the work of the artist from Fiume, he also dealt a serious blow to his career.
It is with a sense of necessity and privilege that I have set about the task of this book. As the first in depth study and catalogue of Martich - Severi’s entire oeuvre, I believe it reveals a Modernist Master; every bit a flower of the Italian tradition as Justin Obrien., only more so for he extended its formal and spiritual language. Consequently it must also show an artist of deep significance to Australia’s cultural vibration; its visual language, awareness, and understanding.
Throughout his catalogue introduction, Dr. Aurigemma touches upon aspects of Martich - Severi’s creative spirit, in a way which is almost prophetic. The two following excerpts are fundamental to any retrospective analysis of this artist’s work:
"Severi is constantly engaged in an effort to free himself from reality. This effort, at times stormy and at times serene, has progressively transformed his vision of things till nothing is left of them but movement and colour.
...as an artist he was immune - pardon me - untouched by the influence of schools and academies, and freely followed his own natural impulse; a necessity, now, in his search for the coloured forms in the depth of his being..."
The ‘stormy and serene’ qualities are prevalent as a presiding duality throughout Martich - Severi’s oeuvre. Their mature manifestation lies within the dual development of his corpus of compositions in biro, and his ‘colour song’ of compositions created in felt pen. The former is perhaps the most sustained chain song of pathos and dance in Western art; whereas the latter reaches states of complete inner transparency and balance. The ‘search for the coloured forms in the depths of his being’ relates inimically to this state of inner balance.
The spirit of an artist is a vibrational mystery; the artist’s life a continual answer to its call. Somewhere between the call of the vibration and the answer of the artist’s life dwells his or her most blessed purpose. Martich - Severi answered with ardent passion to his calling. Love, dance, music, becoming, departing into Timeless Space; these are the themes which dwell in his answer, and the forms it took graze the very soul of our human longing.
Ceramics, sculpture, oil paintings, works in felt pen and biro, vitreous enamel, fibre glass, acrylic, metal leaf, charcoal, pastel, ink, monoprint, watercolour, and lithography. In unearthing the artist’s archives I came to expect the unexpected and still met with surprise! As with Picasso, it is Martich - Severi’s spirit of line which energises and unites all of his endeavours. He himself asserted as much in a drawing monagraph printed in 1974:
"DRAWING is, was and will be the basis of any sort of visual art...drawings are the most free, spontaneous, direct expression of the artist. In the drawing you have the real original idea. Later you have to work, to feel, to put all the skill in but the creative act is done."
Consequently, in putting this catalogue together, as much attention has been paid to drawing studies as to the most highly realized compositions. Often the boundary is blurred, as with the corpus of compositions in biro; whilst they reach varying degrees of ‘completion’, the sparest works hold a pictorial integrity comparable to that of Paul Cezanne. Martich - Severi’s oeuvre challenges, as many have done in the twentieth century, the traditional hierarchy of the plastic arts in western visual culture. His masterpiece of 1976 is a composition executed in biro on canvas. What a wonderful inversion of the status quo! I have tended throughout this text to use the term ‘composition’ rather than ‘drawing’ due to the very ambiguity this intimates. The main exception has been in referring to studies for sculptures, where the pictorial idea is intended for another form.
Martich - Severi’s preference throughout his life was for retrospective exhibitions; exhibitions which included a rich variety of forms and mediums, from different periods, viewed side by side. A catalogue is also an exhibition of sorts, and in ‘curating’ it I have found it necessary to do the exact opposite. The principle reason for this is so that we may gain a sense of a clear aesthetic development, and for the visual joy of seeing an unabridged revelation of form.
The most fitting words of introduction to this artist’s oeuvre are from Martich-Severi himself. I quote here from his drawing monograph printed in 1974:
"Altogether I am happy that Art exists, I am grateful to the artists past and present who gave me so much enjoyment, and I hope to give you some enjoyment myself."

text, copyright: James Waller 2007. Image, copyright: Serge Martich Osterman

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