Franco Matticchio - trainy day

Cats with a View

Matteo Pericoli

Wherever they may be, they sure like to be on top of things.

Ronald Searle

Gahan Wilson

Rilla Alexander

Andy Warhol

Wayne Thiebaud

Józef Wilkon

Lu Green

Princesse Camcam

Sempé

Wanda Gag, 1930

Michael Sowa

Klaus Ensikat

Franco Matticchio

Animali in Viaggio

Pia Valentinis

After missing it when it first opened last March at Zoo in Bologna, 

this Saturday I was finally able to see the Animali in Viaggio exhibition 

when it arrived for a short stay at the Babele bookstore in Firenze. 

Antonio Marinoni

I was interested in this show for a good number of reasons: it's inspired by Franco Matticchio's latest book

 Libretto Postale, it's organized by two ladies I really like, the illustrator and blogger Anna Castagnoli

 and Stefania Camilli, publisher of Vànvere Edizioni, it's an innovative idea and it features

 lots of lovely animal pictures by many of my favorite Italian illustrators. 

Last but not least, I love mail art...

Daniela Tieni

Francesco Chiacchio

Anna and Stefania came up with the idea of a mail art game while discussing the aptness

of detaching the postcards included in Franco's beautiful book (Anna gave a very good account

 of the creative process behind the project on her blog Le figure dei libri). The final concept involved

 sending one of seven postcards from the book (dog, elephant, cat, penguins, chick, squirrel, crocodile)

to seven different illustrators, who would create a postcard continuing their animal's story

 and then send it to another illustrator, who would in turn do the same, 

resulting in a series of 62 postcards by Italian and Japanese artists.

Claudia Palmarucci

Mauro Evangelista

Beppe Giacobbe

Marina Marcolin

Simone Rea

Maurizio Quarello

Alessandra Vitelli

Sergio Ruzzier

Tiziana Romanin

Satoko Watanabe

Nanoa Katayama

Maya Miyama

I really enjoyed the show and am glad I finally caught up with it, if you want to see it too

its next stops will be in Udine, Tokyo and Barcelona...

Franco Matticchio

Good news for all the fans of Franco Matticchio: his new Facebook page will allow you

to enjoy many more of his works and keep up with his latest news! 

If you use Facebook, I also invite you to like the Animalarium page, which offers a rich variety

 of images and links, updated daily. For me it's a great way to easily share interesting art, books

 and news which due to time constraints would be impossible to feature in this blog.

Hope to see you there!

Franco Matticchio

Franco Matticchio - Travelling Mermaid

Franco Matticchio - Kit & Kattic Cocktail Party

Franco Matticchio - Blind Cat Blues

Franco Matticchio

Mysteries of the Marabou

Richard Müller

Recently Sebastiano and I spent a weekend in Brescia to attend the opening of the collective show 

 Marabù Vizi e Virtù. A big thanks to Chiara Padova who invited Sebastiano to participate in the exhibition 

and gave us the opportunity discover her beautiful gallery, an elegant city and lots of fascinating people!

 Since 1972, Chiara is the owner of the Galleria dell'Incisione, an established art gallery 

specializing in Mittel-European art from the late 19th and early 20th century. 

With dedication and connoisseurship, she has introduced and promoted many extraordinary artists

 and a media, engraving, which is generally ignored and underrated in our country. 

But the gallery's offerings are much wider, and range from Japanese woodblocks

to sculpture, contemporary illustration and photography.  

Il pretendente ardito, 1923

La grande bestia I, 1918

The inspiration behind the unusual theme of the show lies in the powerful marabous 

inhabiting the wonderful engravings and drawings of the symbolist artist Richard Müller. 

These striking and rather unappealing carrion-eating water birds of the stork family 

are physically characterized by a bald head and neck, a dangling air-filled breast pouch, 

a long straight beak and thin long wading legs. Their hyeratic pose and unsettling gaze

are likely the origin of their long history as a symbol for wisdom and spiritual insight.

In Müller's engravings the marabou is given center stage as an allegorical animal

impersonating the vices and virtues of man, and sometimes transformed into 

a demonic creature of gigantic proportions. After seeing these stunning works,

I understand and subscribe to Chiara's passion and desire to showcase them.

Ernst Moritz Geiger, La conoscenza, 1890

Martin Erich Philipp, 1925

The show features a series of works by Müller accompanied other Mittel-European artists

 of the period and by a selection of works by 12 contemporary artists produced for the occasion.

Carol Berenyi, Words of love and Urban marabou

Sebastiano Ranchetti, untitled

Seba's colorful marabou was the only digital artwork on show,

and I'm very happy to report that it's already been sold! 

Matticchio, Marababy and The last marabou

Chiara is also one of the greatest fans and collaborators of Franco Matticchio, who was not present 

in person at the event, but whose artworks were lovingly sprinkled around her house and gallery.  

Although initially reluctant to explore the exhibition's theme, he ended up creating 

three marabou drawings that are masterpieces of humour, mystery and imagination. 

Giorgio Maria Griffa

A special mention goes to the watercolors of Giorgio Maria Griffa, 

a wonderful discovery for me and one of the highlights of the show.

Marabù Vizi e Virtù is open until the 20 of March.