CRITICS
Ida Saitta Once upon a time: sulle ali dell’Ippogrifo
by Giuseppe Ussani d’Escobar
by Giuseppe Ussani d’Escobar
It all begins with a fable transmitted orally and which travels through the generations while preserving the energy of the origins. The myth is the basis of the fable: so it is with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Legend has it that a blind cantor narrated in his wanderings the Trojan war and the journey of Ulysses who would return to his beloved Ithaca. Mystery has always enveloped the oral tradition. One could identify in Homer's presumed blindness the determination to place the accent exclusively on the voice destined to sing the heroes' deeds, leaving out the sense of sight, considered unnecessary, as the imagination is called to sculpt the events that will be handed down. to posterity. All of us, users of chivalrous and magical adventures, will have to close our eyes and dream of the fights and spells to access the imaginative and sacred universe of the paladins of all ages, we will have to deliver ourselves in our totality of beings to the imaginary, in order to 'undertake the initiatory journey on the wings of the hippogriff.
Ida Saitta with her watercolors, inks and paintings, which we exhibit in this prestigious venue, wants to make us relive the stories of the Sicilian puppets, the Carolingian paladins, and the ’ àura of Irish fairy tales that have their roots in the world of fairies and gnomes, druids and heroes. The common denominator of these experiences, which the artist invites us to know and experience with her, is magic. The fable leads us to the rediscovery of the myths of the origins, and gives us back the It is an opportunity to re-establish a lost consciousness and an identity or in any case clouded by the mists of progress and superficiality. Orlando, Rinaldo and their comrades in arms are the guardians and heralds of the Sicilian identity. The island is a microcosm-utopia of an extraordinary world, an ideal place where Good and Evil meet and subvert all the usual rules: the constant of dynamic universes so different from each other, the fulcrum or around which stories twist and find their dissolution is represented by Love. Dante, moreover, referred to this very high sentiment as the spiritual power and the cosmos that “move the sun and the other stars ”, emanation of the Divine that becomes human. And now we come to the booklet “The Wisdom of the Salmon or the Illusory of Thought ” taken from the novel “The Pot of Gold ” (Crock of Gold) by James Stephens: in the same way as the Paladins, the gnomes and the characters, human and semi-divine heroes, bring to the stage the identity of the Gaelic Ireland which they guard and testify. They derive, with their modernity and relevance, from the ancient fairy tale, in which often even the animals take on the characteristics and depth of our species. The “Buzzs of the paladins ”, made with extreme skill by the artist, look to the masks; the first evident reference is to the Puppet Theater, but if you look at them carefully, they reveal an ancestral and primitive nature that recalls African masks and seem to embody the spirits of the forest. It is quite evident in the “ Saracen Paladina ”. This fascinating suggestion is corroborated by the painting “The Paladin and the strength of the invisible spirit ” in which the Knight splits in the manifestation of the androgynous spirit that inspires him in pursuing justice. The feminine element is essential for intuition and the interpretation of reality. The real Knight is a harmonic combination of grace and strength, in this apparent contradiction lies the magic of the Paladins who will never be able to disappear from our history, except when and if the human being disappears from the Earth. The watercolors, which illustrate the booklet “The wisdom of salmon ”, release lightness and are expressed in the freedom of colors, the line seems to detach itself from the paper and take flight, the temptation goes beyond the limit of the sheet, it does not stiffen in the closed form, but opens up to exploration and the search for emotions. Color is the real protagonist. The spectacle offered to our eyes is of dynamic images, in a futuristic rapidity, the speed puts before us a world in continuous becoming permeated by the magic of nature and dreams. The colors of the watercolors, as well as of the paintings, are Mediterranean, bright and vibrant, delicate and lively. The dream allows us to win over the harsh and bitter reality and remains our last and last refuge, consequently the figures become aerial and identify with the absence of the force of gravity, characters a la Chagall also consecrated and devoted to the inexhaustible metamorphosis of the imagination in the dimension of the fable. The music in the libretto was composed by Chiara Maria d ’Angelo, very skilled in adapting them to the text. Chiara's musical writing, in its innovative originality, is the continuation of a cultured tradition that dates back in tones, assonances and dissonances to the Pr élude à l ’apr ès-midi d ’un faune by Debussy, in the impressionistic research and to Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps for originality and progression of the melody. The gaze is always turned to the primitive world of Nature, which has its foundations in descriptive spontaneity and simplicity, be it figurative or musical. Our vocation as men is to seek the origins of our individual and collective self in the magical universe of fantasy freed from reason and closely related to the Myth. In our earthly navigation, despite the many trials we face and which can discourage us, we must always keep the spirit of goodness, solidarity and justice in our hearts and minds. We are knights errant in this life of uncertainty. Let's put the fears aside and embark on the journey …
A line for Ida by Lea Mattarella
At first I thought: but I knew another Ida. When she showed me these latest paintings, I had in mind her bright colors, the surface of the painting completely covered with pictorial matter, crossed by grids, a certain dreamy and visionary atmosphere. And so I kept asking myself: how is this new Ida? In what direction did you lead your work? Which path did you choose to take? However, then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that in the end it was not all so unexpected and that these paintings were instead the fruit of a kind of almost obligatory journey, of a sort of destiny, as if they were the most logic, or perhaps the only possible one, to an imperative. What else is research aimed at following without delay, with tenacity, two, maybe three, watchwords: simplify, remove, eliminate the superfluous, give strength, vigor, solidity to a few essential traits. And I began to think of courage, a gift of which Saitta seems to me really rich, because she does not stop, she is not satisfied, she continues to search, even crossing unknown places and not easy to explore, leaving behind perhaps easier seductions, captivating solutions. . Ida had a brilliant palette, she captivated with the splendor of the material. Well, you have basically reduced all this to three colors that you also use sparingly: blue, red and black. He always combines them differently, sometimes one prevails, other times the other, but it is always they who set the tone, as if this exhibition were a symphony composed with a few notes, in which the difference is the rhythm that in this case is the line. It is there that Saitta wants to lead us, it is with this that she attracts us and, finally, seduces us. The line: she especially likes to bend it to enhance its sensuality, its enveloping side, its creative energy. She rarely segments it, she shows the edges. Ida likes to see it flow smoothly, confidently, transform it into shape, the beginning of everything. She precedes matter, color, image and slowly reveals their secrets. You can also "dirty it" to increase its visionary effect as happens in The traveler who seems to come from who knows what distant places and probably comes simply from the other Ida (who is always the same), the frequenter of ghosts and apparitions. And it is as if this world took shape, originated from the perfection of an oval that contains everything. I imagine that when you created a work with such an explanatory title as Difficult Balance, the artist was very clear how much this is a bit of what is asked of painting. Achieving unrepeatable underground harmony. Maybe she too asserted, but with grace, almost in spite of her, as if she really couldn't help it. Brancusi said that "simplicity in art is, in general, a resolved complexity", Kandinsky spoke of "inner necessity", Matisse argued that painting was "a comfortable armchair". I like it when someone brings together these seemingly irreconcilable points of view. This is a good way to start. And to move forward.
April 2006
At first I thought: but I knew another Ida. When she showed me these latest paintings, I had in mind her bright colors, the surface of the painting completely covered with pictorial matter, crossed by grids, a certain dreamy and visionary atmosphere. And so I kept asking myself: how is this new Ida? In what direction did you lead your work? Which path did you choose to take? However, then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that in the end it was not all so unexpected and that these paintings were instead the fruit of a kind of almost obligatory journey, of a sort of destiny, as if they were the most logic, or perhaps the only possible one, to an imperative. What else is research aimed at following without delay, with tenacity, two, maybe three, watchwords: simplify, remove, eliminate the superfluous, give strength, vigor, solidity to a few essential traits. And I began to think of courage, a gift of which Saitta seems to me really rich, because she does not stop, she is not satisfied, she continues to search, even crossing unknown places and not easy to explore, leaving behind perhaps easier seductions, captivating solutions. . Ida had a brilliant palette, she captivated with the splendor of the material. Well, you have basically reduced all this to three colors that you also use sparingly: blue, red and black. He always combines them differently, sometimes one prevails, other times the other, but it is always they who set the tone, as if this exhibition were a symphony composed with a few notes, in which the difference is the rhythm that in this case is the line. It is there that Saitta wants to lead us, it is with this that she attracts us and, finally, seduces us. The line: she especially likes to bend it to enhance its sensuality, its enveloping side, its creative energy. She rarely segments it, she shows the edges. Ida likes to see it flow smoothly, confidently, transform it into shape, the beginning of everything. She precedes matter, color, image and slowly reveals their secrets. You can also "dirty it" to increase its visionary effect as happens in The traveler who seems to come from who knows what distant places and probably comes simply from the other Ida (who is always the same), the frequenter of ghosts and apparitions. And it is as if this world took shape, originated from the perfection of an oval that contains everything. I imagine that when you created a work with such an explanatory title as Difficult Balance, the artist was very clear how much this is a bit of what is asked of painting. Achieving unrepeatable underground harmony. Maybe she too asserted, but with grace, almost in spite of her, as if she really couldn't help it. Brancusi said that "simplicity in art is, in general, a resolved complexity", Kandinsky spoke of "inner necessity", Matisse argued that painting was "a comfortable armchair". I like it when someone brings together these seemingly irreconcilable points of view. This is a good way to start. And to move forward.
April 2006
The visionary artist by Lea Mattarella
It is singular how the work of Ida Saitta, who from 1995 onwards has undoubtedly undergone important turning points and changes, intimately maintains an (unexpected coherence. the possibilities of her painting and her imagination, Ida needed to maintain a sorte file rouge that connects the various moments of her artistic work, a sort of secret grid, impalpable and yet profoundly resistant. It is precisely from the idea of the grid that you could start by reading about this young painter from Palermo, who has lived in Rome for some time, but together with that slight accent that shows the strength of her roots, she has maintained a contact with her land even in the vivacity of her figurative language. this way of wanting to measure a universe that is partly what is in front of us and partly something that belongs only to her. As a gift, a clairvoyance ... because Ida is a visionary artist who alternates moments of rigor with an unbridled imagination, on stage a sort of battle between defined, fixed, permanently determined elements and figures, objects, things, signs free from rules, eccentrics, pure intuitions . And the order, even where chaos seems to reign, is made up of a grid - vertical and horizontal that intersect - which however cannot eliminate this idea of vortex, always present in this painter's paintings.
Extract from "Territori di Passaggio"
It is singular how the work of Ida Saitta, who from 1995 onwards has undoubtedly undergone important turning points and changes, intimately maintains an (unexpected coherence. the possibilities of her painting and her imagination, Ida needed to maintain a sorte file rouge that connects the various moments of her artistic work, a sort of secret grid, impalpable and yet profoundly resistant. It is precisely from the idea of the grid that you could start by reading about this young painter from Palermo, who has lived in Rome for some time, but together with that slight accent that shows the strength of her roots, she has maintained a contact with her land even in the vivacity of her figurative language. this way of wanting to measure a universe that is partly what is in front of us and partly something that belongs only to her. As a gift, a clairvoyance ... because Ida is a visionary artist who alternates moments of rigor with an unbridled imagination, on stage a sort of battle between defined, fixed, permanently determined elements and figures, objects, things, signs free from rules, eccentrics, pure intuitions . And the order, even where chaos seems to reign, is made up of a grid - vertical and horizontal that intersect - which however cannot eliminate this idea of vortex, always present in this painter's paintings.
Extract from "Territori di Passaggio"
The universal language of art, in all its forms, is undoubtedly a positive language, the bearer of values that have to do with beauty, knowledge, the emotional sphere, and as such it has a function on man beneficial, consolatory, often thaumaturgical. I have always been deeply pers귭 of this fundamental mental value of art, so much so that in my path, at the head first of the Rome Foundation and now of the Terzo Pilastro – International Foundation, I have often managed to combine the world of culture with that, unavoidable, of health and help to the less fortunate.
I mention, purely by way of example, the R ésonnance project that we have been supporting for many years, aimed at bringing classical music to places of discomfort such as hospitals, retirement homes, prisons; the concert of the Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio in Malta, in support of the activities of the Emanuele Cancer Research Foundation; the numerous concerts, concerning various musical genres, which enlivened the days of the guests of the Emanuele Village for Alzheimer's patients in the Bufalotta district in Rome; finally, the two projects supported by the Terzo Pilastro Foundation concerning Madrid and two other cities in Spain, thanks to which music on the one hand and the reproduction of works of art from the Prado Museum on the other cheer the hospital stay, both at home and in hospital, of children and adult patients. The initiative “La Rinascita dei Paladini ” is rightly placed in this range of action, which is why, through the Fon Third Pillar action, I am really happy to support you, and I thank the Mediterraneum Association, in the people of Eng. Nicol ò Navarra and Eng. Roberta Navarra, for proposing it to me. The universal language of art, in all its forms, is undoubtedly a positive language, the bearer of values that have to do with beauty, knowledge, the emotional sphere, and as such has a beneficial function on man, consolatory, often thaumaturgical. I have always been deeply pers귭 of this fundamental mental value of art, so much so that in my path, at the head first of the Rome Foundation and now of the Terzo Pilastro – International Foundation, I have often managed to combine the world of culture with that, essential, health and help to the less fortunate. I mention, merely by way of example, the R ésonnance project that we have been supporting for many years, aimed at bringing classical music to places of hardship such as hospitals, retirement homes, prisons; the concert of the Piazza Vittorio Orchestra in Malta, in support of the activities of the Emanuele Cancer Research Foundation; the numerous concerts, concerning various musical genres, which enlivened the days of the guests of the Emanuele Village for Alzheimer's patients in the Bufalotta district in Rome; finally, the two projects supported by the Terzo Pilastro Foundation that concern Madrid and two other cities in Spain, thanks to which music on the one hand and the reproduction of works of art from the Prado Museum on the other cheer the hospital stay, home and hospital, children and adult patients.
La Rinascita dei Paladini
Opere di Ida Saitta
Palermo, giugno - novembre 2019
P.O. ‘G. Di Cristina’ - Ospedale dei Bambini
Opere di Ida Saitta
Palermo, giugno - novembre 2019
P.O. ‘G. Di Cristina’ - Ospedale dei Bambini
The initiative "La Rinascita dei Paladini" is well placed in this range of action, which is why, through the Third Pillar Foundation, I am really happy to support it, and I thank the Mediterraneum Association, in the people of the Ing. Nicolò Navarra and Eng. Roberta Navarra, for proposing it to me. The project harmoniously blends the saving power of culture, attention to pediatric children, or the most fragile, and the traditions rich in history and charm of the Sicilian land, from which I myself come. With the valid coordination of the Mediterraneum Association, the 'G. Di Cristina ', otherwise known as the' Children's Hospital 'and leading health center in the area, is now embellished, thanks to our contribution, with the creations of the painter Ida Saitta, from Palermo by birth and soul. In Ida Saitta's poetics, her strong bond with the history of Sicily and the Mediterranean is tangible. A Mediterranean that is found in the colors, expressive power and historical beauties of the "Mother" Earth, a definition coined by the artist and which well captures her conviction. Our culture comes from the Mediterranean, a sea that unites Europe, Asia and Africa, the "great hinge" of which human adventure has made its favorite environment. With the series of "I Paladini", Saitta offers an explicit homage to Sicily, revisiting the famous works of the Sicilian rio scene, where the representations of sculptural monuments and Palermo puppets reach an incredible expressive charge, with an ascending tension that springs from the sinuosity of the stroke and the power of color. The Paladins and the Puppets are an expression of that epic, heroic and chivalrous spirit which, from the medieval Chanson de geste to the great poems of Boiardo and Ariosto, has marked an entire literary, musical, figurative, and in particular theatrical tradition. popular. The works characterized by the typical colors of the "Sicilian Cart" (the sunny yellow, the intense blue, the violent and flashing red), without losing the originality of the sign that has always made the Saitta recognizable, tell with great stylistic wisdom what , in the Sicilian collective imagination between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, represented for the Sicilian popular classes the grid of interpretation of reality, a reference model for everyday actions and behaviors: the armed Paladins. This is why this project, which I strongly desired in an excellent health facility in Palermo, dedicated not by chance to children, represents not only a marvel for the eyes but also a real historical-anthropological document of traditional Sicilian culture. A culture that must be absolutely safeguarded and handed down to new generations, from childhood, also through initiatives like this, so that the characters and the values they embody (pride, courage, justice, righteousness), reinterpreted in a contemporary key and filtered through the language of art, they can act as an inspiration and an ethical model of behavior for the most promising slice of our society.
Prof. Avv. Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele
President of Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale
Prof. Avv. Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele
President of Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale
The complex and personal language of Ida Saitta is expressed through strong colors: yellow, blue, violent and flashing red, the intriguing black of the inks, which are entrusted with the task of talking about the artist's soul, revealing his travails. , giving shape to his imaginary life companions. Symbolic traits, suggestions and visions populate the canvases of Saitta, the result of an interior and fantastic dialogue that underlies a universe that is all stretched out to plumb the human soul, fears, desires. Always on the border between the artist's own inner world and the real world, Saitta's works follow the continuous dialogue between dreams and intimate thoughts and the contingent data in which man is immersed. This struggle between the two elements is expressed through the medium of painting, a real communication tool that the artist uses to express thoughts and dialogue with the outside world, in a constant cross-reference between reality and imagination.
Stefania Marignetti (Dialoghi Immaginari)
Moments signs of oriental taste, which in the warp of Persian soles build imaginative scenes close to that "African sickness" so close to our Mediterranean roots, are married to a dreamlike vision, sweet the common thread unties and curls up, immediately , in a labyrinth that involves and drags everything.
Vito Linares (Mare D'Amare)
The manifesto stands out for its introspective and spiritual character which recognizes the transcendent. The return to vivid and bright colors marks the most recent period of Ida Saitta's artistic production, which this time offers an explicit homage to Sicily. The artist revisits the famous works of the Sicilian scenario, where the representations of sculptural monuments and Palermo puppets reach an incredible expressive charge with an ascending tension. But even those who belong to other lands feel the common motifs of the original civilization and culture radiated by the Mediterranean resonate in their hearts.
Anna Petrova (Sicilia I mondi introspettivi)
Behind the experience of the abstract in particular of Linear Magnetism of which she is the founder, she captures the images and repositions them in space, fortifying them with an absolutely magnetic and Mediterranean color. The artist confronts a solid figurative tradition, manages to absorb it and return it to us in the most stimulating provocation, demonstrating that the Sicilian Mediterranean can be declined and manifested with extreme originality.
Giuseppe Ussani d’Escobar (Le Vie dei Tesori)
Formal refinement and the wise use of color are two of the distinctive traits of Ida Saitta's painting, an experimental and visionary artist whose works exude all her being a woman and her Sicilian being. Founder and theorist of the artistic manifesto of "Magnetismo Lineare", in which the protagonist is the "line" (a sign that simplifies reality by eliminating the superfluous, which at the same time gives strength and sinuosity to a few essential features), she creates figures full of pathos , which almost seem to take shape and detach themselves from the canvases to live in unison with their interlocutor.
Raffaella Salato (Traces of contemporary Art)
Women who show themselves to the gaze of others, animated by an underlying, mystical, sometimes almost painful vanity. Lei Ida, so delicate and apparently fragile, then in revealing the artistic side of her explodes in a disarming creative impetuosity, where the distinctive sign remains visible and clear but is capable of translating into slight and imperceptible, capital changes of color and style.
Agata Polizzi (About Ida)
A Mediterranean that is found in the colors, in the expressive power and in the historical beauties of the "Mother" Earth. It is no coincidence that the artist uses this word. Our culture comes from the Mediterranean, a sea that unites Europe, Asia and Africa, the "great hinge" of which human adventure has made its favorite environment.
Ilaria Sergi (Linea Mediterranea)
Time no longer as an "object" time, the time of the becoming of reality, but as a symbol of timelessness. The painting is a mental instrument, a sign as an equation between the external and internal world.
Giovanna Cavarretta (Opere)
