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Fausto, Fabbricatore and Fausto

September 18, 2014

The Italian ceramic arts of Fausto Melotti, Michele Fabbricatore and Fausto Salvi :

Several generations of ceramicists who encapsulate the freedom, spontaneity and flair of the Italian aesthetic.

‘La Pittura ‘ – Fausto Melotti

Fausto Melotti

Fausto Melotti was born into a musical family and he initially studied physics, mathematics and electrical engineering. In 1928, at the age of 27, he enrolled in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, where he trained alongside Fontana with the sculptor Adolfo Wildt. Melotti’s first experiences as a ceramist occurred in 1929 after meeting the renowned architect, designer, writer, and ceramics enthusiast, Gio Ponti, who at that time was the artistic director for the Ricardo Ginori ceramic and porcelain manufactory. Melotti assisted Ponti with the execution of several of his designs, and the collaboration marked the beginning of his twenty-year relationship with the firm. While he would continue to work with ceramics for his entire career, his most concentrated involvement with the medium came in the aftermath of World War II. After discovering that his studio had been destroyed in the bombardment of Milan, he renewed his practice by renting out a kiln, thus initiating a fifteen-year period in which he only produced ceramics and terracotta sculptures.

Melotti was recognized, both nationally and internationally, as his contemporaries Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois and Lucio Fontana, as a key figure in the field of modern and contemporary sculpture, being distinguished for having been, from the beginning of the 30’s, a significant contributor in the renewal and development of the plastic language and its materials. Using terracotta, faience and plaster sculptures in mixed media including iron, ceramic and stainless steel works, drawings and sketches, the sculptural path 0f Fausto Melotti was closely linked to the world of visual arts. He merged the classical traditions with the trends of the European avant-garde, mixing disparate strains of 20th-century Italian art from Futurist modernity to the metaphysical elements of the Surrealists.

Fausto Melotti in his studio in Milan, 70’s

Photo Ugo Mulas

Contrapunto VIII – Fausto Melotti

-1971-

Fausto Melotti – Copetta

1950

Female sculpture – Fausto Melotti

Fausto Melotti – ‘Peacock Vase’

1960

‘Coppa con orlo mosso’ – Fausto Melotti

1955

El almacen de ideas – Fausto Melotti

1980

Fausto Melotti – ‘Cavaliere’

c 1945

Fausto Melotti photo by Ugo Mulas

Vaso Ceramica Fausto Melotti

‘Heretics and Saints and Bishops’ — 1952 by Fausto Melotti

A Teatrini representing a miniature “theater” – small and condensed worlds that use abstract and figurative elements to convey narratives. Melotti’s miniature theatres tended to retain a sense of ambiguity and challenge the viewer to construct the drama.

Fausto Melotti,- Vaso Civetta

28 inches height

circa 1965

‘Leone’ — Fausto Melotti

circa 1975

Fausto Melotti vase

Kore by Fausto Melotti

1954

Fausto Melotti modernist vase

Sculptured goblet – Fausto Melotti

‘Noche Africana’ – Fausto Melotti

Melotti’s free standing metal sculptures favoured minimal lines sparsely interspersed with various motifs.

1973

Fausto Salvi

Fausto discovered ceramics in the late 80’s, attending courses at the State Institute of Art of Ceramics in Faenza. ” When I began to work in ceramics, drawing was all-important for me. I enjoyed drawing on the white surface of majolica, being smooth and absorbent. I used to inscribe any surface it offered, plates, cylinders, jugs, vases. Any shape responded to my need to express myself through my drawings. Only later did I learn to communicate through shape and volume, I began to study the expressive possibilities of clay and modeling, more carefully. At the same time I began to think about the surfaces of my pieces as abstract textures and I started to use pure pigment. As I have worked in different series; I have never wanted to concentrate on only one of the elements I was exploring. The presence or absence of drawing has enabled me to communicate very different feelings and messages.”

During an exhibition of Australian contemporary ceramics at the Faenza Museum in the 90’s, Fausto was struck by how the absence of cumbersome traditions was really an advantage in terms of lightness and spontaneity. Some of his pieces, like Melotti, show hints of classical influence, but most are refreshingly original and visually engaging.

‘Down’ – Fausto Salvi

2006

Fausto Salvi – Coppia

‘Grottesco’ – Fausto Salvi

‘A Big Surprise’ – Fausto Salvi

– painted ceramic covered by aluminium foils

2009

Contemporary vase – Fausto Salvi

‘Vegetale’

Fausto Salvi sculpture from the Ten Year’s After exhibition in Milan, 2013

Fausto Salvi with Magic Wood ceramic sculpture

2009

‘Magic Wood’ (Bosco Magico) – painted ceramic covered with aluminium foils – Fausto Salvi

max height : 370 cm – max diameter : 45 cm

Contemporary sculpture “Greenhouse” – referring to a green house in Milan where Fausto lived that was swallowed up by urban development.

2013

‘Bella ‘ – Fausto Salvi

‘Korea’ – Fausto Salvi

2012

‘All I Have To Say’ – Fausto Salvi

– glazed ceramic with gold, NY 2006

Fausto Salvi – ceramic bas relief

Greenhouse exhibition

‘le Belle’ – Fausto Salvi

Fausto Salvi puzzle bas relief

‘One Way’ – Fausto Salvi

2006

Fausto Salvi exhibition

Michele Fabbricatore :

In 1992 at age of 20 MicheleI won a scholarship to do a pottery internship for three months in Maastricht in the Netherlands. In 1993 he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.

” My work is a large cauldron of everything that I like and I’m passionate about: Calvin Orlando Furioso, from fairy tales to mythology, all revisited and reinterpreted with an eye for the ironic and surreal. My mission is to retrieve the most authentic part of me and see with a child’s unconditioned perception, which looks at the world with awe and wonder. And to relive the gift of enchantment that governs all beauty. Feeding this treasure that we all have within, with a desire and a commitment in my life where I hope these values become conveyed through my work.”