User:Franceslansing

Frances Lansing (born 1945, New York City) is a Tuscan artist who uses hot bees’ wax inencaustic painting to make large landscapes on wooden panels. Characteristics of the technique, and the resulting texture of the surface undermine the static quality of the traditional landscape by exposing the dynamic underlying process. In 1973 Lansing moved to Florence,Italy, where, under the influence of the radical architecture group, Superstudio (she was married to one of its founders, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia) she became interested in extra-urban culture. A series of etchings made at the Santa Reparata atelier in Florence portrays farmers who had lived under the ancient share-cropping regime of the « Mezzadria « (photo) She documented the outdoor stone laundries south of Florence, rare photographs of a now extinct architecture, and studies of lace-makers, mosaic artists and many other artisans.

In the 1980’s Lansing produced work in various media including drawing, photography, etching, pastel, oil. Her work became more intimate in its subject matter. In 1981, she began photographing an invented family history, a series called “Mertons” which uses small plastic figures as its protagonists and landscapes made of recycled objects. (interview angelo) (photo)

A series of works in Polaroid in the following years led to experimental paintings which sought to emulate the emulsion of the SX70 media. “The Swimmer” a life size portrait is an example where a buildup of layers of viscous castor oil is alternated with powdered pigment so that the image seems to be embedded in the medium of the painting (photo detail swimmer)

In 1987 her earliest work in bee’s wax evolved from this process of building a painting in layers. These works, called landscapes, are not to be mistaken as identifying actual places but have more to do with the relationship making has to memory.

In the early 90’s she was a founding member of the “Etruscans” a group of Tuscan artists interested in ancient art forms and centered around Philippe Daverio. Her interest in recuperating and sustaining artisan techniques from the past fed into much of her later work in three dimensions.

In 2003 Frances Lansing, after a dual exhibition with her brother, sculptor, Yates Lansing Yates Lansing, began making sculpture in bronze and terracotta. A number of small figures in bronze and terracotta result from a collaboration with her husband, artist Sheppard Craige, and can be seen in a park designed and constructed by him, “Il Bosco della Ragnaia”, south of Siena. (photo fauno)

Frances Lansing taught design for many years in Florence at Syracuse University and Kent State University. Her current works are represented by Amedeo Porro Gallery, Arte Contemporaneo e Moderno in Milan, Italy. The most recent publication on her work, Silvana Editoriale Spa, is entitled “In the Name of the Bee – and of the Butterfly – and of the Breeze – Amen!



Giuseppe Gattuso Lo Monte

Born a Torretta (Palermo, Sicily) in 1937. Died in Florence 1985. Received his diploma from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze. Head of Graphic department of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze. Teacher of Etching and Lithography. Founder – with Dennis Olson – of the Santa Reparata Atelier in Florence where international artists and students worked and studied together using printmaking techniques. Printmaker, painter, and sculptor. In his printmaking atelier, Gattuso was known for scribbling at an old wooden table while chatting with artists passing through. These simple drawings became etchings or sculptures. The works were characterized by an essential material quality coupled with humor and warmth. Their emphasis on a personal narrative put them in opposition minimalism or arte povera. They were prototypes for the best of what became the Transavantgard in Italy (artist like Sandro Chia studied with Gattuso) and had an enormous influence on what became known as a “return to figuration” in Florence around 1970. Gattuso began showing with two artists who shared his interests in printmaking and sculpture in the 1960’s, Rafaele Bueno and Giovanni Ragusa. They have continued to keep his work alive by including him in their own exhibitions. The work of the Etruscans (Roberto Barni, Rafaele Bueno, Sheppard Craige, Maro Gorky, Johnny Ragusa, Matthew Spender) owe much to his influence.