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Title : Annigoni on Photographic Reference
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Annigoni on Photographic Reference

Following up yesterday's post about Why Bother Copying a Photo?, it might be valuable to consider the views of Italian artist Pietro Annigoni (1910-1988). In a YouTube video in the Italian language,  he discusses why he doesn't use photography in his work. Blog reader Mario Zara generously provided the following translation:  

 
Interviewer: for example, you are one of the few painters, if not the only one, who doesn't use photography. Today everyone...

Answer: Well, this return to the so-called classicism, to reality, based on photography, in my opinion is a mistake, it's a form of impairment, in the end, because working from life, which is so transient, always changing, manifesting infinite aspects... working from life means that you accept an effort, a struggle, a labor of conquest, which is removed if you use photography. If you remove this big effort, this struggle, you are removing too much... too many important aspects of art

I: So it's easy to copy a photo
A: Well... it definitely makes things easier. And then photography is a frozen instant of this reality, this truth I was talking about. Because truth changes together with us, while you are looking at it, it escapes [flees], you have to run after [chase] it, it's a completely different view of life, I would say.

I: So, besides technique, there is also a psychological aspect
A: yes, of course, it's a different way of life

I: So, the difficult part of portraiture - when you make a portrait, you make many poses, don't you?
A: yes

I: Where is the difficult part? In grasping the essence of the character?
A: To grasp something that is continuously escaping, in the end.

I: Which is the synthesis of that personality, because the instant...
A: The synthesis of...? It's the synthesis of I don't know what, it's that personality, and my personality mixed together. It's an experience of life, anyway... that's what, in my opinion, the use of photography cancels.

I: So you start studying the character with drawings? What do you do?
A: For me a portrait, or a figure, was first of all an object, like painting a still life. I had to draw this object, to put the eyes, the nose, the mouth and the ears in the right place... I mean, the construction of the figure, its shoulders and everything. Then, at a certain moment, I had to “go inside” this human being. So in the first poses I asked for a complete silence and stillness, then, after blocking in the portrait, as I said, with a construction as correct as possible, I started to talk to the person about many subjects, about any subject, in order to see how [s]he reacted, and lived, and so on, and I myself lived together with that person on those subjects. It was a way to go inside that person, also psychologically.

I: ...
A: A long, hard, laboring work. That's why, at a certain point, I got tired of making portraits...

I: But the most difficult thing is to let the soul come out from the eyes, isn't it?

A: Well, from the eyes, and from every part, from everything; sometimes it's a matter of an instant, of a glimmer on a certain part of the face, which can change the expression. There are many aspects...

I: So during many poses... there is a moment... when everything gets clear [lights up]...
A: there is... when there is... sometimes there isn't, and you have to adapt.

I: I've read in you diary, when you went to the US, that Kennedy let you in his studio when he was meeting with his staff.

A: That was the kind of portrait I did for the “Times” covers. A few things, unfortunately disastrous for me.

I: They considered you the painter, you could stay aside...
A: They didn't pose, I was forced to “steal”...

I: who were the most patient? The Queen of England, the Pope?
A: oh, well, those... no, the Pope was like Kennedy, but the Queen at least granted me sixteen poses, princess Margaret twenty-six. I've always tried to get as many poses as possible, because my type of art...

[...]

I: At least, on this subject, on Annigoni as a portrait-painter, no one has nothing to object, they all agree...
A: well, I don't know, they may object on that too, I don't say...

I: no, no, I say, it's unquestioned... at list on this subject, Annigoni...
A: yes, yes, they let me do portraits, because incidentally portraiture...

I: is considered a genre...
A: a poor [cheap] genre, an outdated genre...

I: but on the contrary, it's the genre which requires the best technique and “eye”

A: well, portraiture... is a big hassle...

I: so, you feel you really belong to our time, as a painter?
A: I feel... to our time? I don't know... to my time, that's for sure. If my time doesn't belong to our time, that's not my fault...
--

Related previous posts:

Shishkin on Photography

Menzel and Photography

Wikipedia on Pietro Annigoni (1910-1988)

YouTube video in the Italian language,

Thus Article Annigoni on Photographic Reference

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