GIORGIO MORANDI

Giorgio Morandi (July 20, 1890 – June 18, 1964) was an Italian painter and printmaker who specialized in still life. His paintings are noted for their tonal subtlety in depicting apparently simple subjects, which were limited mainly to vases, bottles, bowls, flowers and landscapes. He has been written about by Philippe Jaccottet, Jean Leymarie, Jean Clair, Yves Bonnefoy, Roberto Longhi, Francesco Arcangeli (it), Cesare Brandi, Lambeto Vitali, Luigi Magnani, Marilena Pasquali and many other critics. Federico Fellini paid tribute to him in his 1960 film La Dolce Vita, which featured Morandi's paintings, as does La notte by Michelangelo Antonioni. One of the main characters in Sarah Hall's novel How to Paint a Dead Man is loosely based on Morandi.[8] Don DeLillo's 9/11 novel "Falling Man" (2007) includes two Morandi still-life paintings on the wall of Nina's New York apartment, as well as "a show of Morandi paintings at a gallery in Chelsea" at the beginning of Chapter 12. Morandi was a particular favorite of eccentic Scottish poet Ivor Cutler, who included a poem about the painter in his first anthology Many Flies Have Feathers (1973) Two oil paintings by Morandi were chosen by the President of the United States Barack Obama in 2009 and are now part of the White House collection.