ANDREA CASCELLA

Ten years after Andrea Cascella's death, Credito Valtellinese Gallery in Sondrio mounts a large retrospective exhibition of the artist, whose lapidary assertion - "I dissent from ephemeral things" - would sufficiently define his personality and poetics.

Cascella is considered a leader of the Italian artistic culture of this century. He was an extraordinary sculptor, born into a family of artists, who worked ceramics and stone. The exhibition has been mounted inside Palazzo Sertoli under the supervision of Lydia Silvestri, in association with Andrea Cascella's Works Archives. Approximately sixty works are shown, ranging from small earthen statuettes, the "Mazzamurelli", to the thin "Idols", to the more famous and bigger marble or unrefined stone joints and ganglions.

The exhibition ambitious target is to summarise Cascella's "very fervent '50s", according to Flaminio Gualdoni's definition. Those years were fundamental for Cascella's formation. He set up his career and the basic thematic, projects and ideas of his art. The exhibition shows, through plaster and clay sketches, Cascella's coherent and evolving thought. His ideas could remain in the artist's mind for years before being put into practice. Think, as an example, of the clay sketch "La bagnante" (1959-'60), which was fully developed only in1971, with the sculpture "Un'estate". Credito Valtellinese did not mount and promoted the exhibition by chance. In fact, Cascella loved Valtellina and its stones very much. For his works, he preferred Valmasino granite.

Biographical note

Andrea Cascella was born in Pescara, in 1920, into a family of artists. In fact, he learned the art of painting from his grandfather Basilio and from his father Tommaso. Only later, Domenico Rambelli became his master. From 1940 until 1945, the war forced him to abandon the artistic activity and to take part in fights in Piedmont. He subsequently moved to Rome, where, together with his brother Pietro, he devoted himself to ceramics and stone sculpture applied to architecture. In 1957, he moved to Milan. In 1970, he became professor in the Academy of Fine Arts, in L'Aquila. In 1980, he was appointed Principal of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, where he also taught the art of sculpture. Eight years later, he became Principal of the "Aldo Galli" Academy, in Como. In 1990, he became "accademico dei Lincei" in the "San Luca" Academy, in Rome. He died in Milan, on August 26 1990, in his study, in Via della Ferrera 8.

For further information:
Credito Valtellinese Gallery, Sondrio Phone 0342/522738
Credito Valtellinese Group Gallery, Milan Phone 02/48008015
creval@creval.it