Angelino Balistreri

A ceaseless sense of wonder for life is the leitmotiv running through the painting of Angelino Balistreri (Quartu Sant’Elena, Sardinia, 1922 – Macerata, Marche, 2015), which unfolded between the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the next century in Italy and France, as well as in remote African and Middle Eastern lands. The phases of his work are marked by a comparison with models by the great painters of the 1900s, from Picasso to Chagall, and with important avant-garde movements such as Expressionism (figurative or abstract) and Surrealism. Memories of ancient Mediterranean civilisations – especially Sardinian, in reference to the artist’s own native region – are also discernible throughout. Balistreri made use of a wide range of styles and an instantly recognisable technique – consisting in the laying of colour mainly with a spatula – to showcase the significance of the modern Primitivism heralded by Baudelaire, who wrote: “Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will”.