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Aurelio Amendola - Marino Marini notebook

Marino Marini, Forte dei Marmi, 1973

"From the beginning of the 1970s until today, Amendola has closely followed the Italian art scene and the artists who have worked in Italy. The choice was first both random and obligatory – his friendship with Marino Marini – and then increasingly definite, so much so that Amendola can be counted among the few photographers who have portrayed so many artists in these decades. Portraying artists is very different from photographing their work. In the portrait of an artist there is always the wish to manage to capture the essence of creativity, that scintilla that makes an artist different from ordinary people. However, within this portrait tradition that aims at identifying the “genius”, Amendola’s approach is only partially in agreement, because of his artist friends – and perhaps this is the very reason for the friendship that brings them close together – he tends to value, rather, the daily, simple, and familiar aspects rather than the heroic attitude of a demiurge. Almost all of them have been photographed at a moment of rest, meditation, of thinking about themselves, and they all appear rather more fragile than titanic, more questioning than affirmative, closer. First of all human beings, and then artists".
- Marco Meneguzzo