The exhibition is part of the Festival “Via Margutta, art, location, a mystery unveiled”
and it shows four works of the artist Gastone Novelli who had his studio in via Margutta for some years at the beginning of 1960s.
The exhibition tells the story of a brotherhood between Novelli and the photographer Johnny Moncada, becoming soon a professional partnership: the artist often prepared and painted for Moncada the backgrounds that the photographer used for the shooting. Some of Novelli’s works of this period prove how via Margutta and the relations with other painters and sculptors living nearby, inspired him very much. Some of the paintings exhibited in this occasion like A, B, C, Totolettera, Scheme for a language and House of flowers are the result of this inspiration.
Four paintings are exhibited here to tell the story of his research on the language, starting from the simplest elements like the alphabet signs along with most elaborated symbols, already consumed as forgotten myths. He built this way a complex language scheme through which elaborate his symbolic art.
Gastone Novelli (Vien, 1925-Milan, 1968) begins to paint in the 1950s. After traveling in Brazil and Paris he came to Rome 1955 living here permanently and starting his activity and cultural relation. His first solo exhibition was organized at La Salita Gallery of Rome. He traveled also to French, US, Greece, Turkey, exhibiting both in Italy ad abroad. His purpose was to cross-informal art on the basis of the study of sign and writing.
He started to collaborate with neo avant-garde writers, experimenting the language. In 1962 he published "Antologia del Possibile" and in 1964 is one of the founders of the magazine "Grammatica".
In 1964 he exhibited at the Venice Biennal where he obtained the award ‘Gullin’ and in 1966 he published the book "A Journey in Greece" with some of his writings and drawings inspired by other travels too. In 1967 he moved to Venice where he took part to the 1968’s movement protesting and rejecting to exhibit at the Venice Biennal. He died in Milan where he was teaching at the prestigious Art Academy of Brera.