Tancredi. Writings and critical perspectives

Tancredi Parmeggiani (Feltre 1927 – Rome 1964) was one of the most original painters on the Italian art scene in the second half of the twentieth century.

«I would like to paint at every hour, at every sensation, at every idea, at every new revelation, wich now follow each other naturraly, whirlingly, gently in this my inquisitive nature, so tormented that I believe it to be profoundly well balanced» - Tancredi, 1961

This book bringing together a selection of his still little-known writings enables us to put into perspective his working methods and his vision of painting, from his debut exhibition to his tragic, premature death. His writings reveal how he experienced life, while also telling of his close-knit network of friends and relatives, and his encounters with the places and landscapes that he absorbed and recast in painting. In the self-presentations written for his solo shows and his notes gathered among the papers in his studio, we can explore his lucid thinking on art, and his powerful criticism of conformism and social inequality, prefiguring the protest movements of 1968. We also find, however, the deep personal malaise that eventually fatally shaped his work and experience of life. His writings are accompanied by exhibition presentations and views expressed by critics and friends, now often difficult to trace, proposed here as an anthology of critical perspectives. Together with Tancredi’s own writings, they weave a fascinating, intense biography of the artist and the man.