Michele Canzoneri

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Michele Canzoneri (* 1944 in Palermo ) is an Italian artist .

life and work

Inspired by the work of Egidio Costantini's “Fucina degli angeli” ( angel forge workshop ) in Venice , Michele Canzoneri began his artistic career in the 1970s with the creation of “GAVs: gabraster + aria + vetro” (Gabraster + air + glass). Inside a transparent body in the form of a cube, hemisphere or prism, shapes made of blown glass mix, partly empty, partly filled with colored synthetic resin (Gabraster, polyester resin). Light sources are installed below the body. The GAVs are transformed into objects that catch the light and color it with the gabraster. Exhibitions from 1972 to 1974 in Milan , London , New York and Genoa were dedicated to the GAVs .

From 1976, Canzoneri worked on a cycle of Bardo Thädol , the Tibetan book of liberation. It was the moment for a new material, antique paper , shaped by color and time, as a background from which the signs slowly seem to become visible, only to finally gain in value on the surface.

Also in 1976, Canzoneri began intensive work as a set designer in the theater. Canzoneri created u. a. Stage sets

For Canzoneri, the stage of the theater, enlivened by the created sets, became a place where light highlights events like a flash of lightning. The stage sets led him to his intensive preoccupation with light.

The theme of light reappeared in the first windows designed by Canzoneri, which he created in 1979 for the study of the art historian Rosario La Duca in Palermo. The intention was no longer for the glass to condense the glowing shine in itself, as was the case with the GAVs, but rather to let the light shine through thin panes in a natural way. However, the technology remained based on the GAVs, with blown, colored glass bodies in comparatively solid synthetic resin panes.

From 1984 Canzoneri worked on an Evangeliario Moderno , a work commissioned by the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana . Here Canzoneri's deep spirituality and the sacred meet. This encounter becomes permanent when Canzoneri was commissioned in 1985 to design the windows in the Cathedral of Cefalù . Between 1985 and 2002 Canzoneri designed 42 windows with biblical motifs ( Creation (in the central nave), Transfiguration of Jesus , the mission of Peter and Paul according to the Acts of the Apostles (in the north and south aisles), Revelation of John , Last Judgment ). Canzoneri's windows are in dialogue with the light itself, making the glass wall the place where the divine mystery takes place. In order to be able to realize the work, the artist carefully studied the gradations of light in the course of the day and the year. "The stained glass windows of Cefalù are probably among the best liturgical works of art that were created in Italy after the Council ."

In 1992, the exhibition Il muro del tempo (the wall of time), designed by Canzoneri, opened in the rooms of the crypt of the Capella Palatina in Palermo . This exhibition was dedicated to the Norman King Roger II , who, according to legend, had the cathedral of Cefalù built as thanks for the prevented fall of his empire.

Since 1996 Canzoneri has been responsible for the Cantieri Culturali della Zisa in Palermo.

Exhibitions / works for films (incomplete)

1969

  • Nuovi materiali - Nuove tecniche , Palermo
  • Il Rassegna Internazionale d'Arte , Acireale

1970

1971

1972

  • Oggetto GAV , Montedison, Milan
  • Solo exhibition, Centro Attività Visive, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara
  • Solo exhibition, Galleria Rotta, Milan

1973

  • Sculture Luminose , Montedison Center in Milan, London and New York
  • Omaggio a Picasso , Caracas

1974

  • Solo exhibition, Galleria Rotta, Milan
  • Seminario-Mostra La luce della città , Belgrade

literature

  • Crispino Valenziano: Esamerone. Studi di Michele Canzoneri per la vetrate del Duomo di Cefalù . Centro internazionale studi di estetica, Palermo 1990 (on the "Windows of Creation" in the Cathedral of Cefalù).
  • Paul Corazolla: Michele Canzoneri. The salvation of oblivion - pictures, objects, designs for the “Last Judgment”, Cefalù Cathedral . Enka, Berlin 1994.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Antonio Marchesi: Contemporary stained glass windows in Italian churches . In: Art and Church. Ecumenical magazine for contemporary art and architecture . ISSN  0023-5431 . Volume 77 (2014), Issue 2: Artists' Windows . Pp. 52-59; on the cathedral of Cefalú pp. 58–59, quotation p. 58.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Canzoneri, Michele
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Palermo