User:Basilocco75/Romualdo Locatelli

"The revelation of a name that until yesterday had been relegated to the dormer rooms, or to the scaffoldings of hall and church decorator: the very young Romualdo Locatelli", in whose painting" everything is light, color, soul, it is torment, it is the strength of design, it is a clear song of tones ""
 

(Coniele Dartis 7 September 1925) 

from: Mostra triennale di scoltura e pittura all’Accademia Carrara, in “La Voce di Bergamo” daily newspaper, Bergamo, 7 settembre 1925, page 3.

Romualdo Battista Federico Locatelli (Bergamo, 4th of April, 1905 – Manila, 1943?) was an Italian painter

Biography

The Balinese dancer (Barong dancer), Romualdo Locatelli

He was born on April 4, 1905. His family is a three generation dinasty of painters and decorators: in the Locatelli workshop in via Broseta, Bergamo, nine artists were trained. The eldest son of the skilled fresco painter Luigi "Steenì II", he learned the art of restoration and decoration from his father, beginning his artistic production with the wall decoration of vaults and naves of various churches in the Bergamo province. He perfected his art skill first at the Andrea Fantoni School of Applied Art, and then, as a student of Ponziano Loverini at the renowned Accademia Carrara. A fall from the scaffolding for the wall decoration of a church seriously compromises the health of his father, and probably influences Romualdo's choice to definitively switch to easel and studio painting. Known to critics already at the age of thirteen he soon reached fame at the age of twenty with the work Dolore (Pain), portraying his father while sick and suffering.

Driven by an insatiable desire to travel, he visited the most unspoiled lands of Sardegna, of Abruzzo, of Tuscany and even of the Mediterranean part of Africa, together with his bets friend and travel mate Ernesto Quarti Marchiò; He moved to Rome, where Prince Umberto di Savoia himself commissioned him to portrait the baby princes Vittorio Emanuele and Maria Pia. Despite the extreme success achieved in the capital with his studio in famous artist district of via Margutta, he decided, driven again by his passion for travel, to move to the East Indies. He reached Indonesia in 1939, where he opened his new painting studio first in Batavia (nowadays Giacarta) and then in Bali, where he befriended the Italian-Egyptian painter Emilio Ambron. The instability due to the World War II suddenly obliged Romualdo to flee to Manila, in the Philippines islands, where he soon became the best known artist of that particular art movement called Mooi Indie. He made numerous friendships inside diplomatic acquaintances, which allowed him to expose in Manhattan, New York, 1941, at the Douthitt Gallery. With the invasion of Manila by the Japanese Army, the artist's life became more and more difficult; on February 24, 1943 he went out for an excursion in the woods of Rizal, but he never returned; from that moment there will be no more news of him.

Canvas by Romualdo Locatelli can be found in famous public and private collections all over the world, but it is above all in the East where he perhaps produced his best works, where he is remembered as the "famous Romualdo"; his hometown, Bergamo has dedicated several solo exhibitions to him, the last of which was in 2003.

On March 8, 2012, the exhibition "I Locatelli: from the family workshop to the collections of the East" was inaugurated in Bergamo with works by all three generations of Locatelli artists, including a selection of about 20 works by Romualdo Locatelli. His brother Raffaello Locatelli and his first cousins ​​Luigi, Ferruccio and Orfeo Locatelli were also renowned painters. The younger brother, Stefano Locatelli, became a well-known sculptor as well. On the 3rd October, 2014, the exhibition "I Locatelli: from Bergamo to via Margutta and the Vatican" was inaugurated in Rome, with the selection of those canvases that had brought Locatelli dynasty to fame in the Eternal City.

In 2019 the official monograph about the artist, created by the family and best collectors, edited by Vittorio Sgarbi, was released. After a special preview in Indonesia, held at the Galeri Nasional in Jakarta, and presented by the Ambassador for the Italian Republic in Indonesia H. E. Vittorio Sandalli with Daniela Locatelli, niece of the artist. On the 25th of September, 2019, the book was officially presented to the Italian public by the editor himself Vittorio Sgarbi at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, with the co-operation of the GAMeC (Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea).

On the 30th of October, 2019, the book presentation was repeated with great success in Rome, at Museo di Roma by Palazzo Braschi, with main speeches by Vittorio Sgarbi and by the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia H. E. Esti Andayani. The cycle of presentations, following the stages of the artist's life, ended in Manila, at UST Museum of Arts and Sciences, on the 30th of January, 2020, with speeches by Daniela Locatelli, and by by the Ambassador for the Italian Republic in Philippines, H. E. Giorgio Giglielmino.

The "Diary of the Goat" 2020-21 by Vittorio Sgarbi display the famous painting by Romualdo Locatelli "Pain" at the 11th of May page.

Works

• Dolore 1925 olio su tela 22x135 cm Bergamo, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea;
• Costume di Atzara, 1933, olio su tela, Collezione Sarda Luigi Piloni - Università degli Studi di Cagliari
• Ritratto di Augusto Jandolo, 1933. olio su tela, 210 × 152 cm Roma, Museo di Roma inv. MR 45815
• Le lettrici, olio su tela 1934,
• Tirrenica o Adriatica 1937 olio su tela 270x270 Fondazione Cavallini Sgarbi;
• La sorellina 1939 olio su tela 127x77 cm. collezione privata;
• Danzatrice Legong 1939 olio su tela 113x95 cm museo Pasifika, Bali;
• Suonatore d'Arpa 1939 olio su tela 114,5x104,5 cm collezione privata;
• Ragazza balinese 1939 olio su tela 155x117,5 cm collezione Del Monte;
• Ragazza balinese con ibisco 1939, olio su tela 116x96 collezione privata;
• Ritratto di giovane balinese 1940 olio su tela 146x96 Museum UST, Manila;

Bibliography

• Geo Renato Crippa, Romualdo Locatelli, Bergamo 1972
• Marcella Cattaneo, Romualdo Locatelli, un prigioniero della suadente malia d’Oriente, in “La Rivista di Bergamo”, Nuova serie No. 20, gennaio- febbraio-marzo 2000
• Fernando Rea, Romualdo Locatelli 1905-1943, Bergamo 2003
• Flaminio Gualdoni (a cura di), I Locatelli, Bandecchi e Vivaldi, 2012
• Emiliano Marrucchi Locatelli (2019). Romualdo Locatelli da Roma, la città eterna a Bali, l'Isola degli Dei. in "La Rivista di Bergamo" settembre.
• Vittorio Sgarbi, ed. (2019). Romualdo Locatelli da Roma la città eterna a Bali l'isola degli dei. Skira.

• Official Locatelli website: www.ilocatelli.it