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Tony Priolo,painter, graphic and water-painting expert, miniaturist and sculptor, founder of "UL" art,officially enters the world of art in Christmas 1975 at the Roman exhibition "Un manifesto per via Condotti" where he was appreciated by the most representative Italian and foreign critics.Tony Priolo born in Lamezia Terme (Cz) in 1925, learns from his father drawer and portraitist, the first notions about drawing.In 1938-39 he attends a professional high school, then he follows classical studies while his passion for art appears and becomes stronger with time, among periods of difficulities and crises.In1946 he is in Rome where he visits studios and galleries and also the national library where he studies Michelangelo,Raffaello, Giorgione,Leonardo, Tiziano,Van Gogh Cezanne, Renoir..Then periods of meditation and waiting follow, together with moments of enthusiasm to begin pencil and Indian ink drawing and oil painting representing landscapes, still-life and compositions in their first and immediate expression. In 1968-69 he frequents the Roman artistic circles around via Margutta; here he shows his first works on the bare wallstogether with other artists, and here his artistic formation comes to maturity. He meets the greatest artists of that period De Chirico, Cagli,Guttuso, and art gallery managers like Russo of Piazza di Spagna. He founds a circle of avant-gard artists called "Gruppo marguttiano dei sette", and contacts European and American associations of artists for cultural exchanges But soon he realizes that his way through art is "lonely" his intuition and creativity allow him to try different techniquesand to personally develop his art. He begins to pay a particular attention to what happensaround him:in Italy the years of violence and terrorism of "brigate rosse" with the murder of the statesman Aldo Moro; in the rest of the world the increasing of social injustice, abuses,drugs, nuclear pollution etc...Priolo realizes the historical-social work "Aldo Moro in the legend" in 305 miniatures similar to stamps in b/w, divided into 33 tables with images re-evoking the tragic event.Other facts happen: Emanuela Orlandi's kidnapping Chernobyl explosion, the murder of the Sweden premier Olof Palme. Priolo feels the need to free all mankind from the negative aspects of modern society, to give a message of peace,of social justice and freedom. So he launches the "Manifesto of existential trans-futurism" from Montopoli Sabina (Ri) in March 1987, spead by ANSA as literary historical document on March 23. Priolo takes part to personnel and collective exhibitions: Venice, Ferrara, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Messina Palermo, Bari, Rome (Palazzo Esposizioni), and international art fairs: Geneva, Basel, Madrid, Paris, New York. He also takes part to exhibitions of Sacred Art. In 1986-87 he is in the group of painters "from Italy to los Angeles". In June 1987 and until Genuary 1988 he's present at the Mundial Artistique Art-Vie in Paris. In 1991 he presents the document of Second Romanticism in Rieti. Historical exhibitions: "Aldo Moro in the legend" at Torrita Tiberina, May 1985 "Priolo - New works of Art" Poggio Mirteto, March 1993 to honour Pope Woityla,introduction by L. Tallarico and publication of an anthological album (same name) in colour; In 1994 he takes part to "100 Presepi" , in the Bramante's room in Piazza del popolo in Rome with the sculpture "Presepe 86" Major awards: "Un Manifesto per via Condotti", Rome 1975 "Gran premio Gemellaggio Roma Parigi", Rome 1978 "Oscar Internazionale per la Pittura", Rome 1979 "Oscar Claudio Monteverdi" Rome 1980 "Gran Trofeo Virgilio d'Oro", Milan 1981 "David d'Oro", Florence 1981 "Buchkardt Campidoglio d'Oro", Rome 1983 "Premio Fontane di Roma", Rome 1989 Critics: He has been cited by the specialized papers and by Guttuso Guzzi, Fagiolo, Trucchi, Molini, Berenice, Falk, Biagioli Gazzoli, Hart, Griffi, Parisi, Stagno, Tecardi, Parcella, Giannattasio, Gallo, Carli, Palitta, Scheible, Pagani Paolino, Bellezza, Pericoli, Margaritelli, Lucania, Greco Tallarico, Amorosno, Moroni, DiMario, Mauritius Essential Bibliography: Discovering the greatest contemporary graphic L. Carli 1984- Florence "Tony Priolo, a protagonist among the masters of contemporary art- Nerina Pericoli, 1984, Rome Catalogo Intenazionale d'arte contemporanea (International Catalogue of Contemporary Art), 1985, Ferrara Catalogo critico finanziario Artists of the European Community, 1985 Bologna Guida allo studio dei maestri dell'arte contemporanea 1988 Padova Annuario d'arte moderna Italiana, 1993-1995-1997 - Rome Da Cimabue al 900 - Vite dei grandi dell'arte, Ist. Arte Contemporanea, 1990 Milan Capolavori dell'arte e del la letteratura , Ist. Arte Contemporanea, 1991 Milan Prestige de la peinture et de la sculpture aujord'hui dans le monde - Paris 1991-92 Presa di coscienza europea e Romanticismo nei quadri di Tony Priolo - D. Bellezza Priolo Nuovi Capolavori (New Works of art)L. Tallarico Tony Priolo is considered as one of the most talented and prestigious among living painters, as well as a great expert in graphic art, in water colour and miniature painting He has been defined "pictor mirabilis", "apostle of art" "poet of the brush work", "artist knowing the elements of the most modern and advanced painting" He shows a particular intuition in the palette research his art is a continuous dynamic movement, an art conceived as experience inside creativity, with an avant-guard use of different techniques,always in syntony with our changing times. The fundamental steps of his graphic and painting universe are the following:I graphic art period: "Figure reading the newspaper" "Landscape","Young man sitting from the back" "Violin player" II graphic art period: "Dynamic figure", " Landscape","Actors of a tales world" "Some of Priolo's works remind us, with freshness of interpretation, to the graphic exploits of Cagli's works accentuating his expressive dynamism in a singular meeting of two alternative moments of artistic speculation" - S. Giannattasio. "His pleasant sign allows us to interpret contemporary problems studied by the hidden harmonies of the brush stroke, reaching chromatic intensities through the returning of reality's contents, where the artistic sensitivity, becoming the experience of all preceding experiences, produces a rare and excellent optic and scenic meaning". L. Carli. castel Indian ink drawings - "Guitar player walking " "Two women talking in the street", "Interior with still-life and smokers". Pastels on bread-paper "The large basket and the running horse"; classical period "The cardinal" "Waiting", "Curls". "Priolo is determined to reach a complete intensity of feelings and emphasis in every work" - D. Bellezza. About Nativity - " ... it's brightening like the answer of the centuries and it's the same light guiding the spectator to the pictorial research that in Priolo attracts like a legend where the centuries continue to sail and where mountains and incorporated faces, blue and golden colours expand, crowding the hours". - T. Pallitta. "Virgin with the child" "Crucifixion","Deposition" . Beginning of global expressionism: "Luna Park", "Dynamic figures in present imagination in a continuity of time, space, light", "... that reveals an ideal comparison with Pollock" - P. Bertozzi. And "Like in a dream I saw Emanuela Orlandi being kidnapped", "...the picture is a cluster of winding ravines a strenuous research, an impossible way" -N. Pericoli.He goes through the post informal monumentalism in "Warrior in S. Peter's Square". He invents the "UL" art (linear unity) as harmony of lines: the work "Doll in braids", "offers us a delicious mosaic" - N. Pericoli; "Two sages" "is one of the highest quality and most interesting Priolo's works" S. Giannattasio. "Civilisation" and "Man turning into a cock", "..until today nobody had thought of deliberately creating and building situations of dynamismand complementary colours throughout chromatic research" - L. Carli. In 1982 he starts using water painting technique and unti 1990 he produces the collection-exhibition "Jewels of water painting" among which "Enigma of life", "Passions of the city" "Landscape", "... mystery of the light coming from infinite spaces to stop on a finite picture" - N. Pericoli "Landscape and moving figures", "Guitar player with parrots" "...these are Tony Priolo's water paintings: they vibrate of their own light coming out from a nearly impalpable I would say transparent matter that composes them and they assume, through the animating colours, values and meanings, forms and contents, stillness and dynamism. An apotheosis of colours, now tenuous and soft, now intense and vaporous, making this artist an extraordinary executo with high qualities and a very original style. Tony Priolo can be defined the greatest living water painter" - Mauritius. He develops miniature painting in various moments the first work is "Aldo Moro in the legend", 305 miniatures similar to stamps, divided into 33 tablets, re-evoking the tragic event. - "... it isn't the simple transfiguration of a known reality, but the expression of a deep unconscious primordia strength urging to tell other dimension knowledge" N. Pericoli Modular monochromies among which : "The flight into Egypt" "... the three wayfarers of the Gospel seem iced candelabrums"- M. T. Palitta. In "Apotheosis" and "Myth""he demonstrates to have the instruments for a high quality expression" S. Giannattasio. In march 1987, from Montopoli di Sabina, Tony Priolo launches the "Manifesto of existential trans-futurism" stating the need to free the whole mankind from modern evils: violence, terrorism, social injustice, blackmails, vices drugs. It's a message for the welfare of nations for social justice, freedom, universal peace. The Manifesto was spread by ANSA as literary historical document on March 23 of the same year. In 1990-91 there's an intermediate and pre-romantic period among his works there's "The innkeeper, landlady", - ". the figure appears in a purity of lines, it's an enchantment of simplicity, and freshness: a female image, a young girl moving softly, whose wide eyes communicate an intense and suggestive language. She shines in harmony with environment and nature thanks to skilful effects of nuances and warm and delicate shades, in a well organised brightness where the richness of attractive particulars describes a rare grace and the enchantment of beauty, the woman's mysterious and seducing charm" "Bowed head man resting and dog licking his hand", "The stakhanovite" ("... an attentive and full of suggestion picture; the author analyses a new dimension that is inside the same man belongs to him, to his expression and of course to his creativity and energy" - L. Carli.).In may 1991 in Rieti he presents the document of second romanticism - a message to mankind to find joy of living in harmony with Creation. A better world where social justice, brotherhood, love among peoples, goodness freedom and peace exist in a still wild, enchanting and mysterious nature. Works of the romantic period: "Shepherd with flock and landscape", "Rural concert with dance", "Show" "Landscape", "Golgotha", "Motherhood in the country d shepherd resting on his crook", "Rest" "...Tony Priolo's painting elaborates a fleeting reality with hidden aspects in a new way. Surprisingly real effects of shadows and lights are wonderfully carried out. They announce the research of dynamism. His magic universe forecasts an art where man is free" - A. Vanoli, historian and critic of French art.Then the period of nudes: "The two halves","Historical digressions in front of a Monna Lisa's nude". The "Still-life with chairs and three bottles" - " ...rich of chromatic suggestions, three hypnotising green bottles
toning down to light blue and to yellow, an ash-coloured fruit dish, a plate of figs, a jug, a bunch of grapes, and as background a night sky, an unexpected explosion of glares blazes and lashes of light - is it a fire? a dying sunset? That far light pours into the room making the table surface colours change and is reflected on the objects surfaces Behind the appearances of a traditional still-life, Priolo has created a really original and fascinating work" - P. Bertozzi "Sill-life and flying knight", "Interior with still-life three oranges book glass grapes". Starting of the intense fairy-like tone-intimist period with important studies among which: "The three sages" "Smile", "Red beret","Dull notes" - composition."Three dogs fighting for a bone", "Curiosity", "Interior with sitting woman and dog with a bone", "Sitting man with hat and cigarette" - "... there is an indefinite anxiety and melancholy in these last works, the same sensation that is perceived in Picasso's characters of pink and blue periods, on the eve of the first world war, in De Chirico's ones among the two wars and in Scipione's works of the sad thirties" - A.Arconti. Then he follows abstractionism in the period he calls "perpetual motion of thought" with the works: "Anxietyof two protagonists" and "Waltz of emotions". Then there is the dichromatic abstractionism period "Guitar concert for few friends", "Farmer's family anxious about the parturient woman". Then the indefinite sign and colour of "barao" painting realised on newspaper sheets : "Arlecchino touching the lady's bottom", "Guitar player left by his woman's incredulous eye", "Careless motherhood", "Homage to Nicolas Green, angel of the bells". About "barao" painting Tony Priolo says: "... it's mysterious and of great joy and satisfaction to be going to perceive the beats of a new artistic expression. "Barao" painting has given me this sensation ... everything seems to be, or rather is, existential chaos... the picture rotates indefinitely, irrationally, vaguely, in the discontinuity of signs, until by means of colours one searches the light that feeds hope in life and things, in ideas, facts, ways of being; through colours they acquire a rhythmic harmony turning into dream, emotion, thought, fantasy, into a new language painting. One finally gets to a global and abstract conceptualism of the work that is the most immediate, authentic and original essence of "barao" painting. "Inter dynamic 95" is another part of his work: development of painted image-letters; "The dance of hours"is a development of painted image-figures in miniature (UL art); "Didactic of design": 100 panels with 2000 drawings. These works belong to the miniature painting period the most recent, as well as the works of image psychology about present famous people. There are also some limited edition volumes for collections entirely made by Priolo himself. Among these:"Giovanni Spadolini Fifth dimension", "Norman Schwarzkopf" "Aldo Moro in the legend" (Indian ink and pastel) then "Sandro Pertini", "Alberto Moravia", "Enrico Berlinguer""Pope Woityla", "Giulio Andreotti", mini sculpture of "Olof Palme" Then the sculpture "Praesepe 86", the bas-relieves "Woman 86", "Indifferent person"; the wooden sculptures "Venetian tourists", "Horse" then the "vague" art (from the Italian vagabondare): "Meeting on the hill", "Old man's head" (stone): He's lately developing portrait painting. He makes engravings he calls relief- lithographs, among which the author's proofs "The knights of the sun", "Mankind sailing in the sea of sun", "Dream". From a critic essay by V. Margaritelli, 1983:"Tony Priolo has the great merit of teaching and confirming us how much beauty and truth is there in the world. We are lucky to benefit from is art and as interpreters of his message we relax and give ourselves to others, we feel a new strength and a new desire to know the language of forms and of colours that the various works created by his prestigious hand and made with a touching passion testify. Plunging into Tony Priolo's world is like breathing pure air and being restored, it's believing and fortifying one's spirit..." ....Tony Priolo has been able to exploit the gifts received by the divine spirit in order to give them back as token of love, freely and beyond contingency, towards the mankind, searching the essential good in life" - N. Pericoli.