Antonio Giordano

ANTONIO GIORDANO artist, teacher, sculptor, painter, was born in 1943 in Santa Croce di Magliano (Campobasso). Since he was a boy, he has shown his innate talent for sculpture .
In his paternal laboratory, therefore, he takes his first steps. It carves and shapes stone, marble and wood to give body to a creative vein with silent and reflective contents. In 1959 he completed the artistic studies which he preferred in the Carrara Marble School, perfecting them with excellent results at the Artistic Lyceum of the Tuscan city. Student of the well-known sculptor Isoppi , it is in this lively context that he refines the techniques of sculpture. Take in the breath of a Renaissance voice with an innovative tone, tending to shape, with avant-garde shapes, the soul hidden in the amorphous stone. Thanks to a long anatomical research work, technically very fine, the results of material rendering become elegant and dynamic, even if rooted in a mythological and classical dimension, at the base of its cultural formation.

The ideas, the themes, the shapes, the spaces, the vibrations of the ego, the intertwining of perceptions materialize as if by magic in his figurative creations, smooth, sculpted, carved, expertly mixed with geometric volumes that have the task of cancel any kind of rhetorical celebration. The images sometimes push to the sublime and to a graceful description of beauty. A leitmotiv that celebrates the triumph of a traditional culture, open across the board to various experimental scenarios. In his work there is the flicker of a skillful hand in representing plastic solutions, capable of merging contrasting ideas in unusual works.

He received numerous awards : second prize, Figurative Art Competition, Carrara, 1964; first prize ex aequo, Mostra d'Arte Molisana, Larino, 1966; first prize, Estemporanea di pittura, Termoli, 1971; vermeille medal, National Exhibition of Religious Art "Beato Angelico da Taranto, 1977; plaque of honor, Biennal d’Italienne, Paris, 1972; silver medal, Spring Prize, Foggia, 1972; third prize, Santa Croce Contemporary Art Exhibition in Magliano, 1977; first prize ex aequo, Mostra Estemporanea, Santa Croce di Magliano, 1977. Several private collections, scattered throughout the country, welcome his works.

It is featured in the following publications : Dino Campini, Italian art for the world, 1970; Bolaffi National Catalog of Sculpture, n.1, 1976; P. Mandrillo, Presentation in the catalog, Galleria Magna Grecia, Taranto, 1971; M. Stromillo, Antonio Giordano in the catalog, "Gruppo Maestri Molisani", Modigliani Academy, 1974; G. Peluso, Catalog presentation, Galleria Magna Grecia, Taranto, 1976; G. De Gregorio, Artists Exhibition Molisani, Termoli, 1980; H. Orlando, Catalog XXVIII Castello Svevo Prize, Termoli, 1983; A. Pace, Molise painting aimed at Europe, catalog, Santa Croce di Magliano, 1988; L. Mastrangelo, Di Cronaca e Critica, 1994; M. Bignardi, Contemporanea, Notes for a history of the visual arts in Molise from 1945 to 1992, 1997; B. Bertolini and R. Frattolillo, Molisani, Ed. Nocera, 1988; Fabìola Naldi, Crossover, Freiburgo, Bologna, 1988. Among his works we mention: Metamorphosis, Bas-relief to the fallen, Waiting, Maternity, Caryatids, Orpheus and Eurydice, Dolmen, Untitled, Who is without sin, San Sebastiano.

In 2010, from a single block of marble extracted from the Apuan Alps, he created the monument to the fallen Santacrocesi . The cold white marble, charged with a strong emotional tension, exalts a hieratic mother who supports her dying son.

Sculpture becomes the symbol of the strength of a people generated by the sacrifice of their children. Here an idea of ​​monumentality shines through with a completely new paradigm.
"Conceiving a monument today - says the author - means rethinking it, emptying it of courtly and solemn meanings, because they do not communicate with our needs".

Antonio Giordano has a sensitive personality, outside the usual patterns, full of creative passion, with many voices of the soul. His sculptures are robust and delicate. They contain Michelangelesque styles, dictated by a careful knowledge of the body and its movements.
They master the architectural space. In line - in effect - with Buonarroti's authoritative voice: "It is certain that the architectural structure has a relationship with the human bones. He who does not know how to reproduce the human figure and is not an expert in anatomy does not understand anything about architecture ".

As a teacher, Antonio Giordano has given a lot to the school and its students, transmitting, with exemplary humility, the use of the hand and the love of art . His didactic experiences are present in two documentaries of the DSE of Rai. He was part of the jury of the I Colori della Vita competition. In the lithograph, translated into a sculptural work as a prize to the schools of Abruzzo and Emilia Romagna, in an original way he addresses the theme of the competition: "Together on the path of life", in memory of the 27 children and the teacher Ciniglio, who died in the collapse of the Jovine School of S. Giuliano di Puglia.
The model cuts the surface from which Pegaso emerges. The action of the winged horse is suggestive. There is a need for undulations that recall the essentiality of the Tuscan Crete. Cleaves, furrows, digs the plane like the pain caused by the earthquake. The woman who rides him is the allegory of hope. With his books he reminds us of the crucial role of knowledge in the growth of society. The flow of mythological figures then breaks out vigorously. Fly high. Breaking every dark obstacle in its path, to whisper loudly: "Life is a wonderful experience".

di Luigi Pizzuto

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