The Eyes Have It – Eyes in Art by Gianpiero Actis and others, review by Mary Gregory, art critic based in New York

http://www.artslant.com/ew/articles/show/41555

• Gianpiero Actis e Lidia Chiarelli per Immagine & Poesia

Medico oculista e da sempre appassionato di pittura, sia come fruitore che come artista, Gianpiero Actis in questa mostra rende soprattutto omaggio agli “Occhi nell’Arte” del XX e XXI secolo: con tre dei grandi artisti (Lawrence Ferlinghetti e Carolyn Mary Kleefeld negli Stati Uniti e Ugo Nespolo in Italia) è entrato personalmente in contatto ed ha avuto un proficuo scambio di opinioni sul significato dell’ Arte contemporanea e sulle moderne tecniche pittoriche.

Fondatore nel 2007- con la poetessa inglese Aeronwy Thomas (figlia del poeta Dylan Thomas) e con Lidia Chiarelli - del Movimento artistico letterario “Immagine & Poesia”, Actis spesso trae ispirazione dai testi poetici per la realizzazione dei suoi quadri.

http://immaginepoesia.jimdo.com/

In mostra le poesie di Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Aeronwy Thomas e Lidia Chiarelli completano, diventano parte integrante delle immagini.

Sedici “Sguardi d’Artista” dunque, ma anche un paesaggio urbano, una farfalla tra nastri colorati, un mare d’inverno e l’ interpretazione astratta di una vetrina  di Tiffany per un viaggio onirico e surreale  dove ci faranno da guida - di volta in volta - gli occhi azzurri di Marilyn (da una famosa opera di Andy Warhol), gli occhi vuoti di Modigliani e di Munch o i coloratissimi e geometrici occhi di Picasso, Kandinskij e Miró. 

L.C.

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Les Regards des Artistes (Pour Vos Yeux Seulement)

•                      Gianpiero Actis et Lidia Chiarelli pour Immagine & Poesia

Ophtalmologiste, avec une passion pour la peinture, comme un observateur et comme un artiste, Gianpiero Actis dans cette exposition rend hommage en particulier aux “Yeux dans l'Art” du XX^e et du XXI^e siècle.

Avec trois des grands artistes (Lawrence Ferlinghetti et Carolyn Mary Kleefeld aux États-Unis et Ugo Nesplo en Italie) il est venu personnellement en contact et a eu un fructueux échange de vues sur le sens de l'art contemporain et les techniques de la peinture moderne.

Fondateur en 2007 du mouvement artistique et littéraire "Immagine & Poesia” avec le poète anglais Aeronwy Thomas (fille de poète Dylan Thomas) et Lidia Chiarelli - Actis est souvent inspiré par les poèmes pour la création de ses tableaux.

En exposition les poèmes de Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Aeronwy Thomas et Lidia Chiarelli complètent et deviennent une partie intégrante des images.

 http://immaginepoesia.jimdo.com/

Seize "Regards des Artistes", mais aussi un paysage urbain, un papillon entouré par des rubans colorés, une mer d'hiver et l'interprétation abstraite d'une vitrine de Tiffany pour un voyage surréaliste et onirique où nous sommes guidés - de temps en temps – par les yeux bleus Marilyn (d’'après une œœuvre célèbre d'Andy Warhol), par les yeux vides de Modigliani et de Munch ou les yeux colorés et géométriques de Picasso, Kandinsky et Miró.

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Artists’ Glances  (Only For Your Eyes)

•                        Gianpiero Actis and Lidia Chiarelli for Immagine & Poesia

 Gianpiero Actis, an ophthalmologist with a passion for painting, both as a viewer and as an artist, in this exhibition pays homage to the Eyes in Art.  Focusing on important trends and works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Only For Your Eyes, the exhibition, presents paintings by Actis that embrace and respond to poetry and art of the internationally acclaimed poet-artist, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and works of art by accomplished painters, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld of the United States and Ugo Nespolo of Italy.

Actis has met and exchanged thoughts with all three of these artists, and their visions and artistic expressions, particularly how they relate to the eyes, find an echo in his paintings, as do those of many other prominent artists.

Gianpiero Actis, along with poets Lidia Chiarelli and Aeronwy Thomas (the daughter of poet Dylan Thomas) in 2007 founded Immagine & Poesia (Images and Poetry) an international art and literary movement that has grown to become a worldwide organization. 

http://immaginepoesia.jimdo.com/

Actis is often inspired by poems in the creation of his paintings.  In the exhibition, poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Aeronwy Thomas and Lidia Chiarelli complete and become an integral part of the images.

Presented are a selection of sixteen of these "Artists’ Glances" along with images of urban landscapes, lyrical butterflies surrounded by colorful ribbons, a winter sea, and an abstract interpretation of a Tiffany window.  They join to create a surreal and dreamlike journey where we are guided by the vision of Actis, and  - from time to time - by Marilyn’s blue eyes (from Andy Warhol’s famous artwork), by the empty orbits of Modigliani and Munch, and by the colorful and geometric eyes of Picasso, Kandinsky and Miró.

(revised by Mary Gregory, New York)

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GIANPIERO ACTIS

............................................

DA SEGRETE PROFONDITA’

                E l’intera città dormiente va alla deriva ...

                come un dirigibile perduto

                ignaro

                dell’immenso mistero

                                   Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Pittura e poesia, cultura e percorso surreale, costituiscono gli aspetti e le valenze espressive della ricerca di Gianpiero Actis, dove il discorso si snoda attraverso una linea incisiva che fissa un’idea, un’intuizione, un’emozione.

In questa dimensione, si entra in diretto contatto con la mostra allestita nelle sale della «Promotrice» al Valentino, con un «corpus» di lavori che sviluppano il tema «Sguardi d’Artista (Only for Your Eyes)» con particolare riferimento alle personalità di Ugo Nespolo, dell’americana Carolyn Mary Kleefeld e del poeta della Beat Generation Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Un omaggio, quindi, a personaggi di indubbio prestigio in campo internazionale, alla vitalità di un linguaggio che dall’arte alla letteratura esprime le interiori riflessioni sul contemporaneo, a una vicenda decisamente ancorata a questo nostro tempo quanto mai complesso e ricco di trasformazioni socio-culturali.

Actis affida alla pittura la volontà di comunicare, di trascrivere sulla tela le immagini di una realtà rivisitata, di fissare un volto o un’espressione o una poesia nello spazio della memoria:«..ascolto la musica struggente/ che il ritmo della pioggia/ compone lentamente/ per me»(Lidia Chiarelli).

E in questa angolazione, la sua creatività si misura con il Movimento artistico letterario «Immagine&Poesia», che ha fondato nel 2007 insieme alla poetessa inglese Aeronwy Thomas, figlia del poeta Dylan Thomas, alla pittrice Silvana Gatti, alla poetessa Sandrina Piras e a Lidia Chiarelli, scrittrice, ideologa e coordinatrice del movimento.

Vi è in Gianpiero Actis la consapevolezza del valore della ricerca pittorica, del colore, del segno che presiede alla formulazione delle composizioni tra dimensione geometrica e dato onirico.

Una dimensione che ha radici nell’insegnamento del pittore e docente di Storia dell’Arte Riccardo Chicco, al tempo del Liceo Classico Massimo d’Azeglio.

Accanto alle poesie della Chiarelli, di Ferlinghetti e gli «haikus» di Aeronwy Thomas, le sue opere sono caratterizzate da un vibrante cromatismo: dalla sequenza dei rossi ai verdi, dagli azzurri ai gialli, in una sorta di viaggio all’interno della propria identità di uomo e artista.

E sono grandi occhi immersi nell’atmosfera o in spazi metafisici, che concorrono a definire l’attuale ciclo di Actis segnato da sedici «Sguardi d’Artista»: il dolore di Munch e la figura femminile di Modigliani, la ragazza pop di Lichtenstein e la sempre affascinante Marilyn di Andy Warhol.

In questa galleria di volti e riferimenti pittorici si scoprono, di tavola in tavola, Matisse e Mirò, Picasso e Kandinskij, sino a Tuninetto il cui ricordo testimonia l’attenzione di Actis per l’ambiente artistico torinese.

Gli sguardi raccontano il trascorrere del tempo, delle sensazioni, degli incontri dinanzi a «lampioni antichi/ frammenti di luce/ filtrata dal buio della notte», come scrive Lidia Chiarelli.

E una farfalla, un limpido paesaggio e una simbolica veduta, ricreano i momenti del lungo cammino attraverso le stagioni della vita e del sogno.

Angelo Mistrangelo, novembre 2014

Les Regards des Artistes (Pour Vos Yeux Seulement)

L'exposition "Les regards des Artistes (Pour Vos Yeux Seulement)” est une exposition bi-dimentionnelle au rythme poétique  (organisée par Lidia Chiarelli, coordinatrice d'Immagine & Poesia, mouvement artistique et littéraire fondé en 2007 à Torino) présentant les dernières créations originales de l'artiste,  Gianpiero Actis .

Gianpiero Actis, dont le professeur d'Art fut le grand peintre de Turin, Riccardo Chicco, rend un vibrant hommage aux oeuvres principales des grands peintres du XX^e siècle et du  XXI^e siècle dans la construction de ses tableaux en incorporant dans l'iris des yeux de ses compositions, la représentation des plus célèbres toiles que nous avons tous en mémoire comme le cri de Munch...le sourire de Marilyn d'Andy Warhol..les nuages de Magritte.

Les tableaux dans l'espace créent un rythme et des repères spatio-temporels par les mémoires des grands peintres chers à nos coeurs que l'artiste Gianpiero Actis réveille, par les couleurs vives et joyeuses, structurées et légères qui entourent les yeux, thème principal de l'exposition, apportant une dimension de légèreté: des papillons semblent surgir des toiles, des villes aux murs de couleurs nous invitent à une ballade sous la pluie, un arbre magique envoie des rayons de couleurs chaudes, les bleus sont au ciel et le rouge aux sentiments.

Tout est sa place, sous la coordination de Lidia Chiarelli qui a réunit artistes, photographes, poètes, dessinateurs du monde entier pour l’installation “Pour vos yeux seulement” apportant ainsi au regard du spectateur une densité soutenue par la lecture des poèmes de Lawrence Ferlinghetti, de Lidia Chiarelli et les haiku d'Aeronwy Thomas et bien d'autres qui cadencent l'exposition, sublimant le désir de l'artiste accompli Gianpiero Actis de nous inviter par son travail éclectique quelques instants à l'essentiel: .... les yeux sont des prodigieux matériaux pour contempler et refléter la beauté de la vie terrestre....

Sylvia Adjabroux, Artiste - Critique d'art , Bordeaux, France - décembre 2014

http://www.artmajeur.com/fr/artist/adjabroux/artist/sylvia-adjabroux/4060/biography

Gianpiero Actis, l'artiste, a une formation en ophtalmologie et ça se voit dans la série de tableaux qu'il présente pour l'exposition « Les Regards des Artistes - Pour vos yeux seulement ». Dans cette série, l'artiste lance des clins d'oeil en hommage aux nombreux artistes qui ont marqué l'Histoire de l'Art au 20e siècle. Gianpiero présente aussi sa marque dans l'oeil de présent par lignes et couleurs s'inspirant de poèmes de quelques poètes dont la vision a su rejoindre la sienne. À travers un paysage linéaire très coloré, l'oeil toujours présent nous invite à voir large et rond comme la vie et l'ensemble de ses allégories. 

Huguette Bertrand, Québec, Canada, novembre 2014

http://www.espacepoetique.com/

Angelo Mistrangelo - 100TORRI

 (10 December 2014)

http://www.100torri.it/newsite/?p=12415

Fabrizio Legger su Il Monviso 

http://www.settimanalemonviso.it/

"Omaggio a Carena e personali d'artista"  12-12-2014

"Colori e incanti pittorici in riva al Po"   19-12-2014

For the video  video of the exhibition go to: https://immaginepoesia.jimdo.com/promotrice-delle-belle-arti/

• Tribute to Dali' - Modigliani - Basquiat - Matisse (panel with 4 paintings 50 x 50 cms, each)
  

• Tribute to Munch, Pollock, Warhol, Lichtenstein (panel with 4 paintings 50 x 50 cms, each)
  

• Tribute to Miró, Kandinskij, Picasso, Magritte (panel with 4 paintings 50 x 50 cms, each)

• Tribute to Nespolo, Ferlinghetti, Kleefeld, Tuninetto (panel with 4 paintings 50 x 50 cms, each)

• Pollock's Eye
  

• Grey Vision

• Floating Eye

• Dictionaries of Light (tribute to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem)

• In the Blue (tribute to Agneta Falk's poem)

• Winter Sea

• Winter Concert

• "Butterfly on the Seashore Road" (dalla poesia omonima di Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

• Aeronwy's Star

• The Object 2010 (for Aeronwy Thomas)

• The Object 2014 (for Aeronwy Thomas)

• American Dream

• Tiffany

Land of Magic

…All of this in time suspended

           The universe holding its breath

There is a hush in the air…

(from: “A heap  of Broken Images”)

Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

In the land of magic

 we wander on the paths

of an unknown world.

Magritte’s eyes

floating in the clouds

the empty, glaucous orbits

of Modi

Marilyn’s dreamy, tired eyes

all astonished look around

We pause and listen to

their silent message

then

sinking deeper into a spiral of colors

are slowly captured

by a strange

whirling

dance.

                                             Lidia Chiarelli, 2014

Image & Poetry

for Jackson Pollock

Pollock-Krasner House, East Hampton

Now at last

I see you

Jackson Pollock

kneeling on the floor

handling sticks and brushes

dripping paints on your canvas.

From the dark night of your mind

a different universe emerges

new galaxies

(long looping lines)

take form

 as your hands move rapidly around

formless and timeless realms

where I sink deep and deeper

wrapped in the colours

of your Greyed Rainbow.

For a while I will linger and listen to

the silence of the ocean

(or maybe to the roaring motor of your Oldsmobile convertible)

then – tonight –

I will write a poem just for you

Jackson Pollock.

Lidia Chiarelli, August 2, 2012

Winter Concert

                And the whole city sleeping drifts . . .

                like a lost airship

                unconscious

                of the immense mystery

                           —Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Winter Concert

That—as sweet notes—

the raindrops

improvise

this cold evening.

Dazzling

the lights of the shop-windows

as always tell

 their illusory tales.

We walk in silence

strangers, distracted

while the city

oddly empty

wraps us up in a damp embrace.

Lidia Chiarelli, 2010

Timeless World

Glances towards

a world without time

where silent creatures

float and lose themselves

in a sea of crystal

and

 drops of colour settle

slowly

on veils of ice

street lamps

from times past

splinters of light

filter through

the dark night

Lidia Chiarelli, 2008

translated by Aeronwy Thomas

(inspired by Gianpiero Actis’ Floating Eyes

 series of paintings)

Circle Line

 Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore…

Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west…

Walt Whitman

The boat that takes us to

Ellis Island

slowly glides

on the water of the East River.

The haze of the summer storm

on the buildings of Brooklyn and of Queens

is a thin mist

that muffles the noise

already weak

on a summer Sunday.

Mirage of a new world

unreal like in a dream

the Statue of Liberty

raises her torch towards a leaden sky.

I, too, America, want to live your dream.

 Lidia Chiarelli  2010, New York

Aeronwy' Star 

Poem for Aeronwy Thomas

So bright and pure

the light of your star

 on this summer night

is a gentle twinkling

reflected

on the Taff estuary.

Open pages

which the wind turns over.

Your words

 are

still and always here

to create

images and soft tunes

lulled slowly

by the breath of the Welsh sea.

Lidia Chiarelli,   2009

Tiffany

Diamonds are forever

Ian Fleming

The sliding door

opens wide, quiet and appealing

Welcome to Tiffany

the Aladin’s cave

of the Twenty-first century.

The sultriness of this summer afternoon

is already behind me.

A soft pink carpet

is ready for my steps

- ever so stealthy -

while the humming of the air conditioning

becomes a sweet tune.

I cautiously hang about

among the shining display cabinets

jewels with refined designs

peep out.

Going up

The lift boy

invites me kindly.

On the second floor

solitaire diamonds

- marquise  cut -

tell distant tales

 of mahrajahs and queens.

Going up

Gift department.

A very smart shop assistant

puts the presents

- which  in Italy they expect from me -

into a Tiffany-blue bag

and smiles.

I’m smiling too, now:

like a new Audrey Hepburn

today I have become part of

 Tiffany’s legend.

Lidia Chiarelli,  2010, New York

TOOK THE SEASHORE ROAD

Took the seashore road

and sat and watched the sea

A bird became a butterfly

and landed on my knee

Who was the alien

whose land was it

Whose sea ?

She waved a wing tremulously

not sure of anything

the whole world swaying

And I not sure of anything

agreed with everything

that she was saying

As the pollen from her wings

flowered down on me

Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

from: Far rockaway of the heart

courtesy Lawrence Ferlinghetti

In the Blue

I see the world

when I close my eyes

when I listen in the blue.

I hear a voice which has lived

in the blue so long that it contains

all memories, all mistakes, all fantasies.

A voice in zero, where it’s quiet

so quiet that I can hear all names

in one name, where the blue flame licks

this name to a burning whisper,

the voice that lifts you from inside

takes you out to sea

where a thunderstorm is building

and brings you back over the still water,

the voice that goes

where nobody else dares.

That voice burns in me,

in the blue.

Agneta Falk

courtesy Agneta Falk

Floating   Eyes

1

Eyes float like seaweed

On perfect blue waters

To see fish bolt or approach

2

Look into the deep

To see fish greet you

Nature and man reconciled

3

Look into the depth

Fish approach, jump with joy

A meeting

Aeronwy Thomas

THE  OBJECT

It has been there some time

When I entered the room

It was already there

It seems to be of two colours

 But  then  in certain lights

It has to be three or four

Or even more

But then it appears

Almost colourless

I wouldn’t swear to it

Being coloured at all

It’s spherical in shape

I’m sure of that

Not so sure really

Truth be known

From another angle

It could be round

Or flat or multi shaped

Starshaped with sharp corners

Now I’m getting fanciful

It is after all

A very simple object

Or so I think

Until I approach it

And it is blinking

On and off, on and off

I think my eyesight

Must be faulty

Closer

It emits no light

Rather a dull thing

In fact

And when I pick it up

A bit of a deadweight

Not light and feathery

As I had supposed

A bit of a disappointment

Really

I expected more

From the object

When I first saw it

The object in the middle of the room

Or was it to one side

I don’t quite remember

It’s playing on my mind

My mind, my mind

If it was ever there

This object.

 Aeronwy Thomas

The Colour of Eyes

Through the intertwining

of passionflower and bougainvillea vines,

a sky, ultramarine, dazzles

This is the colour of my eyes

which only now

in the retrospect of age

can view the youth

that once was theirs

The sky melts into purples and golds,

and in the air, an almost-autumn coolness

now three stars, the Sabbath is over

and a week, mundane like all the rest,

commences

I am old

and can do nothing

but accept it

© 8.2011 Helen Bar-Lev

Keyhole

Childhood laid out like small print

eludes me even with bifocals

I squint and strain to push away

fuzz-clouds and pages left out

in the rain of years

now smudged and trodden

into muddied memories

My adult vision concerned with

posing before mirrors

straightening my tie

have broken up that innocence

into shards of its original completeness

leaving only a partly reconstructed

semblance of how new

and bright my eyes were then

Sometimes a fragment found

quite unexpected suddenly completes

a puzzle section missing for years

A song heard in an old recording

a face discovered in an album

a little gelateria in Napoli

where vanilla tastes the same

as on that day I rode

my red and silver tricycle

across a fragrant lawn

between a row of brilliant blue

and yellow croquet hoops

to get a second helping

from a smiling Mum

© 9.2013 Johnmichael Simon