Page 36 - Studio International - April 1965

then under Marino, until he himself took a teaching
post in the same Institute. In the immediate post-war
years, his art showed tendencies which we may define
as vaguely 'realistic' ('Mine was no social realism'
explains the artist, 'but realism which attempted to
represent and examine the totality of human nature and
not only the sociological aspect of human existence'),
while later on—after an expressionistic period—his
inclination changed unexpectedly to surrealism.
Already in the sculptures of the 'Avventure di Gustavo
B.' cycle, the elements of social denunciation and
dramatic distortion of personality (typical of the
expressionists) were linked inextricably with a certain
spatial incongruity and absurd perspective which are
close to symbolism and surrealism. The artist is perfectly
aware that his work contains a certain metaphorical,
indeed visionary, element.
His is not so much an art which sets out to probe the
unconscious mind as an art which aims to represent
events in a symbolic light, while at the same time objects
are personalised and natural objects are endowed with
human characteristics. Cavaliere aims to recreate the
objects which surround him—that is to say those with
which he feels a certain affinity—on a different level of
truth ; to represent these objects—or personalities—in a
new and different light so that new possibilities of
interpretation open out before us.
It is, I believe, in this way that we must interpret many
of his more recent works ; both those which belong to
the 'Avventure' cycle, and those exhibited at the Venice
Biennale last year.
The latter are a series of extremely refined sculptures,
cast in bronze (or sometimes silver) from models in very
dark wax; sometimes the sculptures contain fragments
of branches, stalks, or flowers, or else these vegetal
elements may be reconstructed or imitated with a
degree of realism which is quite amazing. The tech-
nique which Cavaliere uses is both skilful and highly
developed. An expert worker in wax and clay and a
craftsman who has mastered the most refined details of
casting, Cavaliere is able to reconstruct even the most
minute feature of a petal or a leaf so that it retains the
freshness and appearance of the living model. It would,
however, be quite wrong to assume that 'realistic'
representation of objects (in this case of plants, fruits and
flowers) is the artist's principal aim: from the contrast
between the vivid reality of the representation and the
static rigidness of the metal which is the artist's medium
derives the impression of troubled unease which per-
vades these sculptures. Because of the realism and at
the same time absurdity of the representation of these
miniature trees or magnified fruits, the logic of normal
existence is destroyed and replaced by subjective
artistic reality.
While these works are not naturalistic (Cavaliere
states that he wishes to recreate his objects and
creatures 'in a new light') they are also not explicitly
surrealistic. Symbolism and realism intermingle.
The sculptor's works are based primarily on plastic
imagery—the rose represents the rose-bush, the bush
1
Everything is conditioned by the forest, while a single fruit may conceal a human
another 1964
Detail. Bronze character. And when actual human figures appear
2 among the fruits and foliage (as for example in a recent
'Rose' 1964
Silvered Bronze. 40 x 50 cm. decorative panel where the figures appear to alternate
3 with pears) they are simply as it were varieties of fruit
'Nature' 1964
Bronze 90 x 70 cm. endowed with human features, embryonic products of
4 the imagination and memory. In this way I believe we
G. B. and nature 1963
Bronze 50 x 70 cm. can consider as a symbolic representation of memory,