"...ORAZI (1906-1979) is noted for his rare creative
talent, his vast and solid culture, which came about through his authentic
humanistic formation enrooted in the refined surroundings of the European
culture at the beginning of the 20th Century, as well as for his knowledgeable
technique in the field of painting.
From the beginning of his youth in Paris, the artist participated in the
intense intellectual life, which made Montparnasse, from the twenties, the
meeting and starting point for new artistic ideas.
After this, during the forties, he turns towards the group experiences of
the "Jeunes Peintres de la Tradition Française",who
were often called the "Jeunes Artistes", while maintaining
a distance from the official demonstrations of the art world and its fads.
The works of this period - from 1935 to 1948 approximately - still lives,
landscapes, and portraits clearly make the distinctive elements of his painting
come out. Painting characterized not only by its ties with the historic
Avant-gardes, Cubism and Fauvism, but also with the great names of Post
Impressionist Art.
During the fifties, his artistic development follows an autonomous and most
certainly original itinerary. His painting "Painting of Movement"
(1948-1952 circa) is a demonstration of this, which because of its dynamic
effects incited great interest from the press at the time. His next research
on Sardinia and Mexico (1952-1956 circa) end up with the production of a
series of paintings filled with extraordinary atmosphere, evoking the essence
of nature and its humans. Finally, he paints Paris (1956-1958 circa) and
the banks of the Seine, full of building sites, already announcing his break
away from the classic figurative experience.
Since the end of the fifties, ORAZI's painting turns resolutely towards
the dimension of the informal and to the complex domain of Relief Painting,
which, within this artist's creativeness, could be defined by a very strong
theme: the Painting of Matter or 'Matièrique. This is the
beginning of a period of great intellectual intensity (1959-1968 circa),
which fully reveals the surprising imagination of this artist as well as
his expertise regarding the technical means in the pictorial production
of these years.
His Relief Painting bears witness to a strong tendency towards the circular
definition of forms, which allows one to get a glimpse of what would be
his final manner of painting, where the "Circular Line" with its
rich and tender colors, violent and supple at the same time, make one see
worrisome psychological projections, which at times emerge from striking
"Landscape-Heads (1969-1976 circa).
The countryside always comes back in the works of this painter, from his
youth to his final experimentations, where the earth is perceived in the
essence of its forms and its colors, through its generosity and its tenderness."
Francesco Negri Arnoldi, Art Historian in Rome
(source : catalogue du XX.th salon de Mai . 1964)
technique: fabric cut out, coated, formatted on cork supports then painted
with tempera after hardening.
size : 77 x 51 1/4 in.
...............
"Window" 1964.........................................................................................."Volterra" 1966
(same technique as above) 38 1/2 x 31 1/2 in..............................................(same technique, 102 x 83 cm)
"Replis" 1963
(même technique 94 x 75 cm)
ORAZI in one of its workshops in Montparnasse, rue Liancourt, middle of
the Fifties.