ROME - '' When you dedicate yourself to art it is like making a vow, like entering a convent. A painter is like a friar, a nun if she is a woman; no other interest or environment should distract him. '' So said the painter Katy Castellucci in an interview in 1958, when she had already made the choice to renounce to exhibit her works, a purpose which she kept faith until the last. Such a radical decision was in line with her spirit as a free and independent woman, ready to leave the men she had loved, not to believe in stable relationships - her marriage lasted a few years - to move without conditioning in a deeply male chauvinist world. The determination was accompanied by a strong artistic sensitivity,a depth of analysis that transpires from the intense gazes of the family members he loved to portray and from his self-portraits. Those big dark and enigmatic eyes that often point the observer or seem absorbed in reflection stand out among the eighty canvases on display at the Casino dei Principi in Villa Torlonia. There is time until 10 October to get closer to this shy figure of the Roman School, well told by the exhibition curated by Claudia Terenzi and Fabio Benzi.well told by the exhibition curated by Claudia Terenzi and Fabio Benzi.well told by the exhibition curated by Claudia Terenzi and Fabio Benzi.
The works of Caterina 'Katy' Castellucci (1905-1985) were collected and cataloged by his nephew Alessandro Pagliero, son of the artist's sister, Guenda, with the help of Magda Roveri. Not an easy job as the painter almost never signed or dated her works. To the canvases are added ten guaches, letters, about thirty delightful drawings and a section of pencils and charcoals dedicated to animals in the Casina della Civette. The story develops between portraits, still lifes, landscapes and female nudes with the description of the family environment and the artists with whom the relationship was closest, from Mario Mafai to Alberto Ziveri, to whom she was sentimentally linked. Born in Laglio, on Lake Como, Katy Castellucci moved to Rome in the early 1920s, where she attended the art school.The great talent in drawing is due to the influence of his father Ezio, a refined illustrator and painter of academic tradition. In 1926 he went to Paris with his sister Guenda Katy and stayed there for two years, attending the 'italiens' who animated the artistic scene of the capital.
Back in Rome she approached the most significant names of the Roman School, as well as Ziveri and Mafai, Fazzini, Scipione, Capogrossi, Cavalli. In 1932 he participated for the first time in an exhibition with two works, but the really important exhibition was his first solo show at the Galleria della Cometa in 1936 together with Adriana Pincherle, sister of Alberto Moravia. On that occasion, among other works, the Self-portrait of '35 was also exhibited, today in the Museum of the Roman School of Villa Torlonia. Critics immediately noticed the quality and poetry of her painting, and she was considered one of the most sensitive interpreters in the Roman school. '' Color is the essential element of Katy's paintings - observes Claudia Terenzi - colors so varied and feverish that they go beyond pure tonal relationships ... In the portraits there isit is an almost psychological attention to the subject, close as a vivid presence with which a never interrupted dialogue is ignited ''.
After the war Katy Castellucci devoted herself to teaching, first in Modena and then at the Institute of Applied Art in Rome (where she founded the section of drawing on fabric), to set design and theatrical costumes. Present at the VI Quadriennale in '51, together with his father, in the same year in a personal exhibition at the Galleria dello Zodiaco he presented his neocubist paintings, within a trend then widespread in Italy of reinterpreting European culture. With some exceptions, such as some glimpses of Rome, the paintings influenced by these new and experimental themes on display at Villa Torlonia are those with the least successful results. Katy realized the changes that painting was going through and drastically reduced her commitment in this field and from the end of the years'50 gave up participating in the exhibitions to which she was invited. However, he continued to draw until the last years of his life, with a production of remarkable quality.