Artist evokes the European masters
An artist at the inauguration of Salvatore Zito’s still life exhibition, “Nature e Velature”, looking at some fruits in a basket on a pedestal was reminded of Yoko ono and the late John Lennon of the Beatles – or rather how they met.
Lennon had seen this apple on a pedestal labelled “apple”, he simply reached out for it, took a bite and replaced it.
“Yoko Ono was livid….that’s how they met” the artist concluded.
A few minutes later a chap reached out for the apple hanging on a string from a ceiling – just above the basket of fruit. I held my breath; but no he was not John Lennon and had he dared take a bite he would have had a rude shock for the apple was not real.
The basket of fruit, though, was real and it was no idle curiosity that made the man reach out for the apple; Zito’s 10 paintings commanded you to reach out and touch them.
Zito, who lives and works in Turin, is a 27-year-old Italian with passion for the old masters. Zito can evoke a studied timeless recalling the old European school of painting that culminated in the Dutch school of the 17th Century. This is so but for the light hearted surrealist moods introduced into the works. For example, a basket hangs on a string in mid-air in a desolate landscape while butter-flies flutter around the basket as if it were a bunch of fresh flowers.
Wakanyote
