Dear Leo: I am leaving New York for a while and I’m on my way to Europe.
Lavatelli | Comments Off Many years ago in New York, where I had my studio for 35 years, I was invited to a black tie dinner at the Waldorf Astoria. It was in the winter of 1970, and the dinner was a fund raising event to help the needy.
Lavatelli | Comments Off I had my second solo exhibit of my figurative work at the Palm Beach Gallery in Florida in the winter of 1968. While I no longer was a figurative sculptor, that period of my life was still very much in demand, and the Gallery wanted to show it. Later on in 1971 – 1973 – 1975 I had solo exhibits of non-representational work. 1975 was the last time I showed at the Palm Beach Gallery for George Vigoroux was arrested on drug and homosexuality charges during my exhibition there.
Lavatelli | Comments Off It was in New York, in the winter of 1971. I had a terrible bronchitis and was running a very high temperature. My wonderful friends Maria Laura and her husband H.E. Piero Vinci, the Italian Ambassador at the United Nations, wished to take care of me. Their kind chauffeur, a young man who always helped me in moving around the heaviest of my sculptures, during installation in solo exhibits, came to pick me up and I was given the last floor of their residence on Fifth Avenue, like many times before and after.
Lavatelli | Comments Off I had the last exhibition of my figurative work at the Gallery Motte in Geneve, May of 1970. In 1971 I received a letter from Madame Motte, saying that during my exhibit the sister of the Shah that apparently lived near the gallery had visited the show and was very impressed. She had picked up a catalogue and sent it to their imperial Majesties. As a result they were now looking for me to commission a sculpture. Madame Motte in her usual generous manner added: “it’s all yours, I don’t want any gallery commission”.
Lavatelli | Comments Off My father Mario, was also my mother, that made the difference in my life. He taught me water and mountains, birds and fishes, he held my hand and took me everywhere with him. He taught me to pray, to sing, to see the sky, the sun and feel the wind on my face. He loved me and told me the truth, he trusted me and gave me lots of space for action, I had no fears. He never set me free.
Lavatelli | Comments Off In 1966 Erminio Cidonio showed up at my studio, which was in Rome at the time in Via Margutta • Palazzo Patrizi. He apologized for not having made an appointment. He had seen my work at my recent solo exhibit at the Gallery Il Carpine in Rome. He was very impressed with the work in the gallery, and also the work he saw in my studio. Right there on the spot, he invited me to work at his Foundation for carvers in Pietrasanta: The Officinia Cidonio.
I met Isamu in 1966/67 when I was invited to work at The Officina Cidionio and developed a relationship that was to last 22 years. The Officina was a place for carvers in Pietrasanta. Access was only by invitation; there I also met Moore, Arp, who came to have their plaster maquettes enlarged by the two men employed by Cidonio for that purpose.
Lavatelli | Post a Comment It was some time at the end of the 60s that Joseph Hirshhorn decided to build his Museum in Washington, with the hope that people would forget his Canadian misfortune. It seems that the general public did forget, except the ones that lost all their lifetime savings. In 1969, Joseph Hirshhorn came to my studio in Rome. He was accompanied by Carla Panicali, of he Malborough Gallery, which represented me in Rome.
Lavatelli | Post a Comment Sometime near the end of 1971, after a very successful solo-exhibit in New York, I invited my son and husband to go on a trip around the world. Description of that adventure is at page 14 of the Part One of my book "The Work of Carla Lavatelli by Carla Lavatelli 1970-1984".
Lavatelli | Post a Comment 