Gianfranco Manara's Po valley landscapes are a kind of sad reflection on a world that is going extinct: it is seen from a distance, which is not only distance of the visual perspective but also distance from an urban lifestyle, where Manara was integrated and felt the first difficult contradictions.
Born in Casalmaggiore in 1924, he then moved to Milan in the second post-war, but neither city life nor recurring journeys and stays abroad were able to separate him from his youth lands: a triangle of land and water between Casalmaggiore, Sacca and Colorno which is a constant presence in his production.
It is a bright and essentially peaceful vision, but also a bit melancholic. Reality is caught in its sweeter and more affectionate aspects, but they are consciously detected as an alternative "refuge" against the most traumatic aspects of modern urban civilization. Some signals are revealed by those landscapes that appear more pleasant: Waiting in Camminata (1957) captures some figures from afar, making one wonder what they are waiting for. The answer is in the contour of the little cemetery from an even farther distance, which is barely recognizable.
Manara will show his darkness in the graphic, more than in the painting, which will be dominated by the anguish and continuous death foreboding.
Donated by Maria Giovanna Brovetto Rondo Manara
