The Art Scene of San Lorenzo: The Faces of Anna Laurini

 We first saw Anna Laurini's work--her woman, here, in two pasteups--on a phone booth on via Tiburtina in San Lorenzo, just a stone's throw from where the great consular road begins. A stylized woman's face, with a musical score as background. 

In the days and weeks ahead, as we walked the San Lorenzo neighborhood, well known for its radical, working-class, and student politics, its tolerance of any kind of graffiti or wall art, and its suffering from the 1944 American bombing, we saw more Laurinis, variations on the theme--some pasteups, some modest-size wall paintings, apparently accomplished some time ago. In one variation, the lips were not red, and the background was not a music score:

In another, older and painted, the lipstick conforms to the mouth, the eye is blue (and the pupil more pronounced), and the background is even-older wall graffiti:

This one seemed to be merging two, or three, faces. And the eyes (and hair) were purple.

One pasteup was in black and white, another was colored only in orange. Below, Laurini apparently used existing graffiti for the lip color. You can see there's a lot of competition for attention on San Lorenzo's walls. 

One painting was "framed," by the blue hair of two women facing each other. 

And this one, in pink and black, with the color of the pink lips "contained" but also emphasized by the surrounding pink, used drips to dramatic effect.

We couldn't resist the opening and vernissage, an event that was the norm pre-covid and now is much less common. It took place at the Proloco gallery at via Dei Latini 52, in San Lorenzo. We were immediately offered a glass of wine and joined the crowd, inside and outside the gallery (as is the custom--see photos at the end of this post). 

Usually we introduce ourselves to the artist, but this time we did not. We are quite sure she is the 2nd from the left in this photo:

And that this is her mother, shooting a video: 

A gallery flyer described Laurini as well known in the underground circuits of London, Paris, and Lisbon. It described Laurini's work as merging the "sophisticated" and the "simpler," and her style as both "rapid" and urban, "almost like an ideogram of the soul and identity." Her work "invites the viewer to reflect on the multiple identities that mix in the great cities." "The enigmatic faces painted by Anna Laurini act as mirrors of the soul, asking observers to look inside themselves to confront their own essence." 

I (Bill) was intrigued by the work, as this post reveals. I think I was taken by its simplicity of color and form, by the ways in which the basic model could be differentiated, and by what I saw as the presence of Pablo Picasso, here employed by an artist generations removed. I don't think it helped me look inside myself in search of my essence, but that would have been a lot to ask. 

Bill 

Buon vernissage!

Roman Women: Working in the Streets

There are feminists in Italy, and in Rome, but it would be too much to say that the country, and the city, have embraced women's rights.  Some of this reluctance has to do with the Italian family, an entity held in high regard (to say the least) for generations, if not centuries, and the normative role of women in that family. This was especially true under Fascism, when Mussolini demanded more children per family (at least 8, up to 20) and the state subsidized maternity homes with a tax on spinsters and bachelors, among others.  Naturally, most women stayed home to raise the kids.  Women didn't get the vote until 1946, but adultery by a woman was still a public offense.  Not until 1975 did the Italian parliament abolish the right of a husband to control his wife's existence. 

Caught taking her picture

By 2000, the average family size was 2.6 persons, and only about 2% of families had 4 or more children.  Moreover, women of all ages could be seen scootering around Rome, a form of physical liberation, at least.

Even so, as of the turn of this century less than 1% of Italian managers were women, only 10% of parliamentarians were women (and 33% of Italian women said they wouldn't trust a woman prime minister), only 44% of women were employed--the lowest figure in the European Union--and women were dramatically underrepresented in every basic job category--state employees, factory workers, business owners, self-employed--except office workers, where there was rough parity. 

What's surprising then, is that one sees women cleaning the streets and picking up trash.  Yes, cleaning the streets and picking up trash--jobs usually associated with men and, in Buffalo, where RST sometimes resides, an occupation apparently (from our observation) all male. 

Who would have guessed?

Bill

As part of her job, this woman postal worker gets to ride a scooter--on the sidewalk even.