Biography

At the threshold of a beautiful world, so dark, so vast, so tenderly sacred.

A (provisional) autobiography

I was born in Campione d'Italia, in the maternal house in via Bono, on February 21, 1935. The school, the absence of the father and the mother in a precarious economic situation, all to support. Then came the war, even though Campione was fortunately helped by nearby Switzerland. In '46 the nascent major schools, then the third technical Institute Helvetic Lugano.

The first oil paintings were made in 1947, and the beautiful exhibition of the Italian Ottocento, visited with my uncle at Villa Ciani, suggested the purchase of two spatulas. Small cardboards or slats: flowers, houses and an old Bissone, where I went several times by bicycle to check the colours. I was happy to stop next to the good Cappatti, while he painted those glimpses so dear to him, of a country not yet violated.

Renouncing to continue my studies, I entered the Ceramiche Campionesi, apprentice-decorator, paid 40 cents per hour. The head of the department was Master Gino Mocellin, to whom I owed my first and only drawing lessons: hatching, light and dark, details of household objects, the ribbing of leaves. Real tasks, followed by his observations. But in the factory the work is monotonous, and I soon realized that I was a low-cost, productive unit. After two years, then, the big decision: at the beginning of the second quarter, I returned to the Helvetic Institute for the two-year commercial course. Here, thanks to the incessant care of Prof. Stefano Colombo, and to my revalidated commitment, I finished my studies with a particular predilection for the Italian language. This was followed, over time, by several hints of opera.

Finally, things went for the best, and in February 21, 1956 I assumed the occupation in the branch Games of the Municipal Casino. The rapid economic improvement allowed a fair recovery of those possible dreams that the youth was asking for. In '59 my mother and I left the old house: the rented apartment was new, with all the comforts. The living room will serve as a study, after work, in the quiet hours of the night. It's a period mainly devoted to landscape, with numerous annotations from life.

Unfortunately, much of Modern Art still lived on the high seas. A kind of unknown land, mysterious and fascinating, of which I perceived only the secret existence.

With these thoughts matured the idea that, in an attempt to get out, in 1963 gave the thrust to the poor boat of my knowledge. I took up the landscape again almost from scratch. Many drawings, inks, oils on paper or on cardboard with a dark background prepared by myself. In '64 I get the prize at the ‘Terza triennale del pittore dilettante’, and the following year, always in Lugano, the first personal. I continue, alternating highly productive periods, long intervals, second thoughts, readings. From the first hints of man, the ‘black series’ of '68, the ‘processes of identification’ with the inclusion of the figure in the landscape, graphic drawings and ‘tables’ of '72.

The call for new colours opens a search for combinations, where warmer colours follow the gradual abandonment of blue. In '73 I publish 'Poiane' (17 short poems and 5 illustrations to the text). December brings me the First Prize at the painting competition ‘La Madonnetta’ in Lugano with a painting of '67. I returned to canvases, and the production of '74 was almost a farewell to the landscape. In fact, from then there is a succession of 'geometries', 'figurines', 'abstractions', both as drawings and oils. Today, at the provisional conclusion of this biography, it remains a glance at the many works executed, and a consequent question about the "confidentiality" that I have until now attributed to them: works that mark, through the most varied periods, that creative context of mine in continuous evolution.

Enrico Fenogli