The delta
   
 
     
 
     
 
     
     
     
 
The 1950s: The delta
 
 
It was difficult for Lucatello to make the uncertain, yet admiring people who saw his pictures, understand that he used to be and continued to be a realist painter.
In 1958 he goes back for a few weeks in the lower Po valley (Rovigo) where he had already been with other artists, in a trip organized by the Party, after the great flood of 1951. If at that time the artist used charcoal to depict the harsh lines that poverty had left on the faces’ of many women, now his attention is captured by the Po Deltas.
The very dark, moist, lumpy earth and the little ponds flooded with light, that he painted very, very white, or red or brown. There is nothing but earth and water and at first sight it seems like an abstract, as it is difficult to grasp the references to reality. But it is not so, because the observation of the artist allows him to depict the outward object; even if it is confined, even if the reference to a house or the skyline is missing. One only has to follow his vision and convince oneself that what is real, the thing, can be perceived and represented in a different way other than in the figurative sense, and still remain closely tied to reality.
 

 


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