ORAZI (who wrote his name in capital letters), was born in 1906 and died in 1979. He was a painter of the French School (École Française) and a member of the School of Paris (École de Paris or nouvelle École de Paris).
His works shifted from figurative art to abstract art, which was often characterised by matter in relief rising from the canvas surface. He called this phase Peinture en Relief (Painting in Relief). He returned to figurative painting in his latest phase.Bénézit, Emmanuel, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Nouvelle édition, T. VIII, p. 27, Paris, Librairie Gründ, 1976; see also the voice ORAZI (Orazio) in Benezit Dictionary of Artists in Oxford Art Online www.oxfordartonline.com/public/book/oao_benz, which however modifies the French text introducing errors regarding the Artist's origin and year of death.
In Paris, he had his studio on Boulevard du Montparnasse from 1934. At that time, the district of Montparnasse had replaced Montmartre as the artistic centre of Paris. After the Second World War, in 1946–1947, he moved to another atelier in a quiet street of Montparnasse and he maintained the same address until his death.
He steadily exhibited his works, for over three decades from 1947 until his death at the Salon de Mai, of which he became a "historic member". The Salon de Mai was the art association founded in Paris in 1943 (declared in 1944) in opposition to Nazi ideology. In the introductory note to the 1979 Catalogue of the Salon de Mai, "La volonté de Continuer" (the will to continue), his death was remembered by Gaston Diehl, Founding President, with these words: "I care to remember those who have recently left us [...] and most especially two painters who were for so long faithful companions in our artistic path: ORAZI and BURTIN."XXXVème Salon de Mai, Chapiteau de la Ville de Paris, Parvis de la Tour Montparnasse, 1979, Catalogue p. 3. In 1979 the Salon de Mai exhibited ORAZI's work titled Portrait d'Hélène (portrait of Hélène): Catalogue n.109, painting reproduced on p. 20. The painting had been delivered to the Salon de Mai by ORAZI's wife together with the French artist Édouard Pignon, one of his best friends. Hélène Parmelin was the wife of É. Pignon.
In 1952 he was appointed a member (Sociétaire) of the Painting Section of the Salon d'Automne Society, the Parisian art institution founded in 1903 with the aim of encouraging development of the fine arts and organizing the annual art exhibition the Salon d'Automne.Le Comité de la Société du Salon d'Automne to ORAZI, on 16 April 1952 (document from the Artist's archives).
Throughout his career, from 1932 until his death in 1979, he participated in a long series of exhibitions, including many solo exhibitions, mostly in Paris, but also elsewhere in France, Italy, other parts of Europe, America, and Japan. There have also been some solo exhibitions after his death, from 1980 to 2006.
In 2009, the American photographer and artist Peter Beard reproduced four paintings by ORAZI - from his Peintures en Relief (Paintings in Relief)The pictures of these paintings are on line: Home Page - in the Pirelli Calendar.These paintings have also been reproduced by the Russian journal 'Europa': Еврора - ВСЯ (Культ), Девушки и Элефанты. Круговорот Прекрасного В Ррироде. Фрагменты Издания Калелдаря Пирелли, Россия, February - March 2009, n.2, pp. 136-140 (by N. Werner, N. Huneke).
For his artistic career, he adopted the pseudonym ORAZI. The name derives from the Roman antiquity and represented in the artistic field - since the 17th century - by a series of artists of the same family tree, active in France but who were originally from the Bologna area and central Italy.Among those artists, several had his same first name: Horace, Orazio, or Horatio. Bénézit, Emmanuel, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Nouvelle édition, T. VIII, p. 27, Paris, Librairie Gründ, 1976; Benezit Dictionary of Artists in Oxford Art Online www.oxfordartonline.com/public/book/oao_benz.
Career
In 1937 the Parisian art gallery 'Galerie de Paris' organised his solo exhibition.'Paris-Soir', sect. Dans les Galeries, L'exposition d'ORAZI, 10 Dec. 1937, Paris. In 1937 and 1938, he exhibited at the First and Second Salon des Jeunes Artistes in Paris.Premier Salon des Jeunes Artistes (Palais des Beaux-Arts), Febr-March 1937, Paris; Deuxième Salon des Jeunes Artistes (214, Faubourg Saint Honoré), 20 June-5 July 1938, exhibition invitation, p. 2, Paris.
He was again in Italy. His paintings (Paulette; Wally; Young woman dressed in blue) were exhibited in 1934 and 1936 at the 'Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte di Venezia', the 'Venice Biennale', an international cultural event increasingly important, and in 1935 at the 'Quadriennale d'Arte Nazionale', in Rome (Jasmine;Young woman resting with her cat).Other paintings from 1936, 1937, and 1941 were commissioned and purchased by the Milanese art foundations 'Ospedale Maggiore' and 'Trivulzio' (bibliography: Quadreria Ospedale Maggiore Cà Granda, Ritratti Antichi, Mondadori Electa, Milan, 1986, catalogue n. 664, pl. 735, p. 75; Biscottini, Paolo, (Ed.), 200 anni di solidarietà milanese nei 100 quadri restaurati da Trivulzio, Martinitt e Stelline, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 1990, p. 71.
The works of those years, until approximately 1946, were essentially portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and compositions. They highlight the distinctive elements of ORAZI's painting, which was characterized not only by its ties with the historic French Avant-gardes, but also the great names of the French Post-impressionist art. The research on colour, in the physical representation of objects and characters, takes a predominant place in all those works.Bony, Anne Les Années 40, Éditions du Regard, Paris, 1985, p. 108: it is on line at catalog.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/ja/recordID/1000935969; Negri Arnoldi, Francesco, Note on the Artist, on line publication at www.painter-in-paris.com; Edizioni della Faretra, ORAZI (monograph; 30 plates in colour), Novare, 1946.
The French art critic Jean-Pierre Pietri called ORAZI's new style Peinture du Mouvement (Painting the Movement), reflecting his search for dynamic and plastic effects of human gesture and animal movement, alongside the strength of colours.Jean-Pierre (Pietri), ORAZI et la Peinture du Mouvement,'Les Lettres Françaises', Année 14, n. 518, p. 9, 26 May-3 June 1954, Paris.
In his tempera L'Exode he depicted a long convoy of refugees fleeing Nazi invasion: it was exhibited in Paris at the Salon d'Automne of 1952.Marcenac, Jean, La critique du Salon d'Automne, Salle 36 - Première des trois salles du Nouveau Réalisme, 'Les Lettres Françaises', 30 Oct.-6 Nov. 1952, Paris; Besson, George, Le Salon d'Automne, 'Ce Soir', 4 Nov. 1952, p.8, Paris; 'Le Patriote du Sud-Ouest', Triomphe du Réalisme au Salon d'Automne, 11 Nov. 1952, p.10, Toulouse.
The paintings of the Peinture du Mouvement, a series dedicated to Circus characters (clowns, horsewomen, riders, athletes, ballet dancers), were exhibited in Paris, at the Salon de Mai in 1952 and 1953, at the Salon d'Automne and at the Deuxième Biennale de Menton in 1953, at ORAZI's solo exhibition held at the Parisian art gallery 'Galerie Marcel Bernheim' in 1954.'Tous Les Arts, Hebdomadaire d'Information Artistique' (a weekly art journal directed by L. Aragon and inserted in 'Les lettres Françaises'), Le Salon de Mai (8th Salon de Mai: painting reproduced ORAZI – L'écuyère), May–June 1952, Paris; Rollin, Jean, Les chef-d'œuvre du 8e Salon de Mai (ORAZI: personnages de cirque autour d'une écuyère), 'La Marseillaise', 17 May 1952, Châteauroux; Sibert, Jean, 430 toiles d'un peu partout s'exposent au soleil de Menton (Deuxième Biennale de Menton), 'Arts', n. 422, 31 July - 6 August 1953, p. 7, Paris (painting reproduced: ORAZI – Clown); Jean-Pierre (Pietri), ORAZI et la Peinture du Mouvement (on the exhibition at the gallery Marcel Bernheim; the paintings mentioned are: L'Ecuyère, La Famille du Clown, L'Homme à l'Haltère, La Danseuse), 'Les Lettres Françaises', Année 14, n. 518, p.9, 26 May-3 June 1954, Paris; 'Journal de l'Amateur d'Art', Les Expositions - ORAZI (Galerie Marcel Bernheim), 10 juin 1954, Paris. Bernard Collet, Étude d'un tableau d'ORAZI de 1953: « Le Clown », May 2016 (article written on the painting exhibited at the Deuxième Biennale de Menton of 1953)
Moreover, he painted a series of large compositions representing Historic Battles (and also officers on horseback, Dragoons and Carabinieri): some of them were exhibited at the Salon de Mai of 1955 and 1956, at the Salon des Indépendants of 1957, in Paris, and at the Milanese art gallery 'L'Annunciata' in 1959.<ref>XIème Salon de Mai (Catalogue: ORAZI, Bataille), 1955, Paris; XIIe Salon de Mai (Catalogue: ORAZI, Etude de Mouvement), 1956, Paris; Besson, George Le Salon de Nulle Part (ORAZI: photo Bataille), 'Les Lettres Françaises', 10–16 May 1956, Paris; Boudaille, Georges, ORAZI - Mouvements (Bataille), 'Les Lettres Françaises', 6–12 June 1957, Paris.'''L'Annunciata', Galleria d'Arte in Milano, ORAZI, N. S. 43, 21 Feb.-12 March 1959, Milan.</ref>
In 1954, the editorial staff of the journal Les Lettres Françaises proposed to ORAZI illustrating the short-story titled The Story of a Soldier Who Brought a Cannon Home, written by the journalist and novelist Italo Calvino.'Les Lettres Françaises', Histoire du Soldat qui ramena un canon chez lui. Un conte d'Italo Calvino illustré par ORAZI (translated by Geneviève Gaubert), 5 Aug. 1954, Paris. In the Artist's archives there is the letter sent by the editorial staff of 'Les Lettres Françaises' (at that time directed by Louis Aragon), dated Paris, 24 July 1954 (from Y. BENOT to ORAZI).
From the end of the Fifties, ORAZI worked in abstract art. He showed his paintings at the Salon de Mai of 1960 and 1961,XVIe Salon de Mai, Musée de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 8–29 May 1960, Catalogue n. 139 – Peinture; XVIIe Salon de Mai, 6–28 May 1961, Catalogue n. 131 – Nocturne and above all in a solo exhibition held in Paris at the 'Galerie 7', in 1961. This exhibit was introduced to the public by the French art critic and writer Michel Courtois,'Galerie 7', rue Miromesnil, Paris, ORAZI. Peintures Récentes, 21 April-12 May 1961, text of the exhibition brochure by Michel Courtois. and was praised by the critics.Chevalier, Denys, ORAZI -Galerie 7, 'Aujoud'hui Art et Architecture', sect. Les Expositions, May 1961; 'Les Lettres Françaises', sect. Arts – Peinture Fraiche (by M.-T. Maugis), ORAZI - Galerie 7 (a painting by ORAZI is reproduced on p. 11), 3 May 1961, Paris; 'France- Observateur', ORAZI (Galerie 7), 4 May 1961, Paris. The French edition of the New York Herald Tribune wrote that he "shows succulently painted variations on single tones - gold, red, tender blue - [...] And yet these apostrophes to pure colour do have a life on their own and a craftsmanship that delights the eye. He is one of a group of painters who are trying to put European abstractart on its feet, so that it can stand without American aid, and he may succeed."'New York Herald Tribune', sect. Les Arts, ORAZI (Galerie 7), 26 April 1961, Paris (French Edition).