Page 49 - Studio International - November 1965

land. Seattle. Los Angeles, Palm-Beach. Whilst art is the sign of a great spiritual integrity'. Strange,
critics like Alfred Frankenstein, Edouard A Jewels, paradoxical fact. Never did Pettoruti receive so much
Harry R. Burke, Isabella Jones were writing flattering praise as since his departure from Argentina. In 1956
appreciations in the press. many of his works were he received the Guggenheim Prize of America. At
entering a dozen public and private collections of the Buenos Aires, where his paintings are changing hands
United States. at high prices, the expressions of esteem and gratitude
I thought it useful to give all these details so as to multiply themselves round his name. In 1962, he is
show how the fame of Pettoruti had already strongly even called there to take part in official festivities given
established itself in the New World when escaping in his honour. But Europe, be it Italy, his country of
from the Peron dictatorship, he arrived in Europe in origin, or France, adopted. seems to ignore him.
1952. A few exhibitions in Milan, in Florence, in Rome, It is true that the Parisian public had never been
then in Paris in 1958 only touched an elite public. exposed to a convincing panorama of his works. How
It was in London, in 1960. where, for its inauguration, could it, then, corroborate the admiring judgment of
the Molton Gallery had put together a selection of his the few persons allowed in the intimacy of the artist?
1 /2 canvases, that the reputation which he had already It needed the retrospective presented by the Fina

acquired in the two Americas was to have a serious Gomez Foundation at the spacious Galerie Charpentier,
continuation in British opinion. The acclaim of the for Pettoruti to appear in all his value and to take at
London critic was very warm. J. P. Hodin wrote: last the place which he deserves in the movement of
'It is no exaggeration to say of Emilio Pettoruti that contemporary art.
what he has aimed at through his career, though A few drawings of 1914 showed him at Charpentier
unconsciously perhaps, is an art as absolutely defined to be in the heat of the futuristic battle. A year
and classic as that of the Florentine Renaissance in an previously in 1913 the young Argentinian descendant
idiom which is of our age ... The climax of his middle of an Italian emigrant family had arrived in Florence.
1
Vallombrosa 1916 period is to be seen in some of his over-lifesize Harle­ Very quickly he assimilated the most recent victories
Oil on Canvas quin figures (Serenade romantique. 1938) and in of the European avant-garde. Many 'papiers colles· of
2 some still-lifes with goblets, which are masterpieces 1914 and 191 5 of a precocious mastery marked his
Burst of light 1916 ... His work shows a unity of artistic purpose which passage to cubism. At the same time, he began to
Oil on Canvas
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