The devil and the holy water: Sergio Dangelo and Lorenzo LOME Menguzzato at the Civic Gallery of Trento.

The Studio d’Arte Gentile Polo, at the invitation of his friend Lorenzo LOME Menguzzato, participated in the artistic debate around poetry and art between the artist Sergio Dangelo (Milan, 19 April 1932) and LOME (Trento, 27 August 1967) at the Civic Gallery of Trento.

In the delicate surrealistic atmosphere linked to the representation of Nature of the enormous canvases painted by the artist Sam Falls (San Diego, CA, 1984) the evening began with the sharing of the poetic tastes of the artists LOME and Dangelo and the presentation of the colorful object books created in two hands by artists in dialogue, designed to be hung also as a two-sided painting.

Then leave the anecdotes from the expedient of the rickety table, ironically appreciated by the Milanese because they remind him of the turbulent trips at sea, and LOME gives him a lunge trusting that the colleague always puts a wedge at the tables of restaurants where he goes to eat. The comic situation remains in the marine theme with Sergio Dangelo who tells of having recommended to Alberto Moravia, who often complained of being tired of his job, of going to be a fisherman on the high ground or the miner putting an end to the complaints. It goes without saying that “The indifferents” of Moravia could not please him and that Dangelo preferred, by his own admission, Emile Zola and the last poetic production of Montale, the less “incomprehensible” one.

He continues the anecdotal account of poetry Lorenzo who reports that he met one day Alda Merini who, when asked what he thought about poetry, would have replied that poetry does not count for anything, only music counts. From these statements would be born the interest of colleague Dangelo also for music.

As for the artistic happenings (avant-garde artistic manifestation, in vogue since the end of the 50s of the twentieth century in the United States, and then spread also in Europe since the 60s, characterized by improvisation and participation of the public to the event) for Sergio Dangelo would be useless. When he was a teacher at the Academies of Art he did not explain cathedratically nor did he produce improvised drawings or paintings, but he asked the students why they used a certain color or technique in their work.

The students were so involved in the teaching method that they would come to droves and from his courses would have come out even good painters even though they did not produce the classic school exercises.

The attraction of the students for his method would have been such that envy the other teachers would have made him out of at least three Fine Arts Academies …

At this point there was a question from the public to the artist Lorenzo LOME Menguzzato: if therefore the poetic and artistic production are useless, the Bosco dei Poeti realized by the artist in the family estate would not be a waste of creative energy compared to the intellectual exchange student -professor?

The Trentino painter defended himself well by saying that every work that is given to him, transcribed or photographed is an exchange in itself similar to the student-teacher, with the difference that while this is limited to the classrooms in the Wood of the Poets anyone, in any moment can admire or stop to read one or more works. Poems, photographs and worksheets are freely available to the public in cases adjacent to the works of art along the path in the forest: they can be consulted, meditated, acquired and even discussed on site and then placed in the appropriate case for the other visitors.

The answer to this is the observation that all the cards of poetry, photography and techniques are in A4 format for a voluntary choice of “democracy of the Art”, for which one does not give more importance to one or the other, but it is up to the visitor to decide according to taste.

At this point a friend of Mr. Gentile Polo, the pedagogue Annachiara Marangoni asks the artist Sergio Dangelo which was therefore the mystery of his artistic work. After a first moment of meditation, the Milanese artist replies that there is no mystery in his production because in the contemporary world art does not have to make sense. Art is a playful game made by adults in which the only awareness does not lie in giving meaning to the gesture, but in choosing the gesture, the game itself cum grano salis.

We tend to give too much importance to casus, while we must give importance to chance by not giving it to him. Taking for example the legend of Giotto and his perfect circle: according to Dangelo Giotto he would have distracted Cimabue with the sheep “Look at the pechorella …” with his Tuscan make, to extract the charcoal and make the famous circle; turning the teacher would have exclaimed “Oh what have you done? It is admirable … “referring to the gesture, not to the reason. But do not ask Mr. Sergio Dangelo how he knows the original version because it’s a secret …

Another curious question from the public was always addressed to Mr. Dangelo regarding his knowledge with Fortunato Depero (Fondo, 30 March 1892 – Rovereto, 29 November 1960) Italian painter, sculptor and designer.

The Milanese artist admits to having seen him live only a few times, in particular related to the artistic diatribe about who had invented the term for nuclear art.

(Note mine: the Nuclear Art is the artistic current born in Milan, when Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo published in 1951 the Technical Manifesto of Nuclear Painting, starting from the premises of Spatialism, the influences of the surrealist automatism combined with the influences of European informal, to the upsurge of Fontana’s spatialism and to the experimentations of Gianni Dova.

According to the Manifesto of the artistic current, Nuclear Art imposes itself to “break down all the ‘isms’ of a painting that invariably falls into academicism. They want to reinvent painting by disintegrating its traditional forms. New forms of man can be found in the universe of the atom and its electric charges. We are not in possession of the truth that can only be found in the atom. We are those who document the search for this truth […] The force of gravity will no longer weigh down our minds and will not bring us back to earth because it has been defeated by nuclear art, an atomic supercarbon for our interplanetary flights.”)

According to the story by Sergio Dangelo, the artist Fortunato Depero complained that the Milanese had misappropriated the term “Nuclear Art” that he coined. Dangelo would have gone back to that of Rovereto to clarify the diatribe and the whole thing turned into a joke and Depero, in response would have donated a design to the nuclear players intervened, to which Dangelo would later respond with the gift of a statuette of his production.

After a long talk Lorenzo finally invited everyone to refreshments, where they were served excellent wines labeled Bosco dei Poeti to accompany grana and soft cheeses, asparagus, spicy red croutons, blacks with charcoal and vegetable greens, yogurt sauce and the one with fennel and kiwi tomatoes, and other delicacies. Obviously we of the Studio d’Arte Gentile Polo could not exempt us from tasting like all these goodness!

Towards the middle of the reception we also met the artist Sergio Dangelo and the lawyer Dott. Carlo Chelodi was quick to present to the pedagogue Annachiara Marangoni as a poet. Unfortunately, the Milanese artist, while complimenting the beauty of the beautiful artist, did not remember to have already known her in the conference by answering the question about the mystery of her artistic production.

The poet, already embarrassed, tried to invite the artist to her performance at the Castle of Drena with a generic “But you come to the castle?”, Probably assuming that his friend, the lawyer Chelodi, had already informed Mr. Gospel of the event. So it was not, and to the answer he did not know which castle in particular he was referring to, the poetess unfortunately became impatient by moving away.

This small here pro quo on the other hand has meant that the artist Sergio Dangelo, seeing his interlocutor move away, he noticed me, the Studio d’Arte Gentile Polo, and approached. To the question: “But you would come with me to the castle?” Suddenly, eyes in the eyes of the great Milanese artist, I answered a “Sure!” So confident and smiling to amaze myself. Excited by my answer the Milanese artist called me “Darling” and he did me the honor of taking my head in his hands and kissing my cheek! At the exhibition of Loppio the autograph, now a kiss … when I tell it to our bodybuilder Nico (Nicola) will go in broth of jujube!

At this point also my “boss”, Mr. Gentile Polo, was able to come forward, thanking “the master for having honored us with his presence, even if we are only provincials.”, Warmly shaking his hand in his and receiving in response a reassurance: “No artist is provincial, we are all at the center of the Art”.

(Lucia Martorelli – Gentile Polo Art Studio)