Venanzo Crocetti
Venanzo Crocetti has always had a love-hate relationship with Giulianova (his hometown), with Teramo Abruzzo.
Giulianova his birth on August 3, 1913 and there found "fertile ground" fertile commitment and removal of crosses, despite
the hardships of a life very poor and the mishaps that hit a boy. There was born a bully, is modeled, it
strengthened and grew rapidly his love for art.
The famous Gallina, cast in bronze in 1931, won him, in 1941, the coveted "Premio Verona" to "Show
National animal Art ". Crocetti was imposed immediately to the attention of critics as a great sculptor, and his career
drew impossible with other vertices already at a very young age. At fifteen, he moved to Rome and began a frantic activities
training and research, supported by an iron will, an immense desire to learn and an insatiable greed
of store concepts. On the morning working to the restoration in the Sistine Chapel for some private institutions, in the afternoon
si dedicava al disegno e allo studio: frequentava l’Accademia Serale Inglese e Francese, partecipava a convegni e dibattiti,
tra cui quello sul Futurismo, dove conobbe Marinetti. Visitò i Musei Vaticani e tanti altri musei romani. L’impressione che
ricevette dalla grandiosità della Cappella Sistina gli procurò una forma di vertigine che lo fece star male per qualche giorno.
A diciassette anni frequentava assiduamente il Giardino Zoologico dove ritrasse una Tigre con la quale partecipò to "Show
National animal Art". It was a very exciting moment for him. For the opening night wore a
new dress, but when entering the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, he lacked the courage. In 1931 he exhibited in an exhibition
prepared and collective participation in the "National Competition of the Academy of St. Luca "that took place in 1932. I won.
He was only nineteen. "That prize of 5,000 lire - scriverà più tardi - rappresentava per un ragazzo della mia età una
vera ricchezza ... a me, che sono nato nella miseria e per questo rinuncio a spendere con sconsideratezza il denaro, quelle
5.000 lire consentirono di impostare in maniera salda le basi sulle quali avrei costruito tutta l’impalcatura del mio mondo».
Dopo il 1932 la vita di Crocetti cambiò in meglio. Nel 1933 venne premiato alla “Nazionale di Firenze”. Conobbe il pittore
Ferrazzi, che soon introduced him to Ottolenghi, and worked with the great architect Piacentini. The success earned him an invitation
for the Biennale of Venice of 1934, when he performed a huge range of works large and small. In 1934 he participated
the "International Exhibition of Sacred Art" at Valle Giulia and also took part in the XIX Biennale di Venezia. At that time
abandoned the restoration work. In 1936, for the second time, he was invited to the Venice Biennale, he exhibited at the Show
Italian Art in Paris and performed the statue of St. Michael for the town of Aprilia. for the twenty-first Venice Biennale
of 1938 received, for the third time, the invitation to participate with eight works. In 1950 he won the competition for one of the doors
S. Peter to complete in 1966.
In 1956 Professor Cute Gambacorta, newly elected mayor of Teramo, after intense consultation with the organizations
veterans of the city, with citizens and with his staff, decided to provide the city of Monument
to the fallen of all wars. Gambacorta, in the few months of operation as the first city with great dynamism tax
solving important community problems Teramo, forcing a frantic pace to the somnolent bureaucracy
city. The program was presented to the city went ahead with the ambitious and enormous personal sacrifices, but with determination
and decision. Crocetti was already famous in Italy and around the world and won many first prizes. In the city museum of his works were exhibited three very significant: The Lioness , The Lion and the Gazelle Wound . Many collectors had Teramo
his works. In the church of S. Flavian, Giulianova, there is a large crucifix bronze Madonna and
Child marble.
The Knights of Peace , built in 1988, almost twin brother of one of Teramo, in the summer of 1989 he began his journey
to bring a message of peace on three continents: Europe, Asia and America.
In summary this is the ideal plastic in which the sculptor has remained stubbornly faithful during his long and
busy life: an ideal of ethical and aesthetic consciousness is animated by a stubborn hope for a new Humanism. Opera
high quality formal and profound political content, the young Knight of Peace port in the world a message
harmony and brotherhood, which is in the same intentions of its creator that has a clear aim to objectify it as a
saving mission of beauty and love playing the ardent hope of all men, especially at that time in
which is responsible for a disturbing and growing anxiety about the fate of humanity. For this reason the organizing committee of
shows that the trip would start from Hiroshima, a city martyr of World War II, at the commemoration
the 45th anniversary of the explosion of the first atomic bomb. In 1984, with Professor Mario Pomilio and Gianni Letta,
was organized in the halls of the National Library of Rome in the sixteenth-century castle of L'Aquila and in the Museum of S.
Croce di Firenze, una grande mostra antologica che fu visitata, tra gli altri, dai principi Carlo e Diana d’Inghilterra. La mostra
riscosse un grande successo di pubblico e di critica. “L’Osservatore Romano” scrisse: «La grande mostra è la prima antologica
di un artista che è tra i maggiori della nostra scultura». Su “L’Espresso” Trombadori disse: «La personalità di Crocetti
ha avuto riconoscimenti per il suo stile, la sua European culture, his creative breath, his taste for the synthesis and characterization
accurate expression of his feeling and anthropomorphic. " "Crocetti - Trombadori wrote again - not
is only a fellow traveler of the protagonists of the renewal of that era, is one of them. The protagonist then, along
Martini, Marini and Manzù of renewal as a carrier of new values \u200b\u200band specific poetry in the sculpture. " In 1955
won the competition for teaching at the Academy of Florence, where he moved and executed several sculptures free subject.
In 1957 began the Via Crucis for the new Basilica of St. John Bosco in Rome.
In 1960, the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, of which he became President for two terms, he organized an exhibition
staff.
In 1967 he performed for the Lateran Basilica, two fountains with deer to melt silver. In 1972, in occasione dell’inaugurazione
della nuova sede della Cassa di Risparmio, il Professor Gambacorta gli fece organizzare una mostra personale e
curò la pubblicazione della monografia presentata da Marcello Venturi ed edita dalla “Editalia” di Roma. Il volume vinse il
premio della Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri.
Nel 1973 la Contemporary Art Gallery di Tokyo gli organizzò mostre personali a Tokyo ed Osaka. Nel 1974, in concurrently
to the travel of businessmen from Abruzzo in Canada, organized a solo exhibition in Montreal at the National Institute
Italian Cultural Institute. On that occasion he refused an advantageous offer of a big brand of cigarettes he wanted
match its brand to the exhibitions of the sculptor. In 1975 he exhibited again in Tokyo and Osaka, and participated in the exhibition of
contemporary sculptors in Paris.
In 1977 he visited Japan for the first time the following year he exhibited in Kyoto.
In 1980 he returned again to Japan for the exhibition of reliefs and drawings.
In 1983 he completed the Academy which will be donated to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. In 1989, the 150th anniversary
the birth of the great nineteenth-century sculptor Raffaello romper, his countryman, he participated in shows in his
honor, together with colleagues Mario Ceroli, Peter and Andrea Cascella.
In 1993, for the fourth time he visited Japan where he participated with Girl strolling along the seashore , the
air show Utsukushigahara open and had the honor of starting the solemn events organized for the opening
Museum. Nippon Television Fujnuma met and agreed with him on the organization of the anthology
take in the museums of Yokohama, Shimonoseki and Gumma.
In 1996, the Ministry of Culture Museum Crocetti returned to the Foundation and the works located there. The museum, which has
undergone renovation and retrofitting, will be open to the public in the autumn and will be managed directly
Foundation Crocetti. In 1998 Master Crocetti returned to Japan for the fifth time for the opening of a
traveling retrospective exhibition that was visited by over 50,000 people. In the same year completed, after twenty years of intensive
work, the beautiful port of the Museum Crocetti placed in recent days. In 1998 the project took shape of a work
be placed on the back door of the Cathedral of Teramo. In the spring of 2000, The Annunciation was placed on
rear facade of the Duomo, on the occasion of the celebration of the Jubilee of Abruzzo. It was blessed by the Holy Father
John Paul II, who had for sculptor words of esteem and praise, and because the leg pain that was later forced
to bed, prevented him from walking, was home in his wheelchair mobile. Crocetti was deeply moved
and subsequent days was never tired of telling the emotion he felt and the feeling of peace that had
given the contact of hot hands of the Pope and the charisma that emanated from her figure. The Annunciation was placed on
portal posteriore del Duomo il 28 maggio del 2000 ed è stata l’ultima opera dell’amico Venanzo che così ha voluto dare
un’ulteriore testimonianza di amore alla sua terra.
On. Antonio Tancredi
Presidente della Fondazione Venanzo Crocetti
