MICHELE CATTI (1855-1914)

Exhibition promoted by

Sant’Elia Foundation

under the patronage of

Regional Province of Palermo
University Consortium of the Province of Palermo

edited by
Maria Antonietta Spadaro

Palazzo Sant’Elia – Palermo
Opening 8 June 2013
until 25 August 2013

TO almost 100 years after the death of Michele Catti (1855-1914), the Sant’Elia Foundation, with the patronage of the Regional Province of Palermo and the University Consortium of the province of Palermo, pays homage to one of the most representative Sicilian artists with an exhibition in his city. Under the curatorship of Maria Antonietta Spadaro, the exhibition presents the public with a large number of works, proposing a 360° reading of the life and artistic experience of Catti, a figure who, together with Francesco Lojacono and Antonino Leto – known triad of the major painters of the Sicilian nineteenth century – helped to create on our island that magical happy cultural moment, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which saw the work of GB Filippo and Ernesto Basile, Mario Rutelli, Antonio Ugo, Vincenzo Ragusa, Benedetto Civiletti and many other no less important artists who, starting from academic experiences between neoclassicism and romanticism, expressed the sense of modernity inherent in impressionism and modernist language. In this context of local artistic ferments, Michele Catti occupies an anomalous position, due to his feeling imbued with poignant melancholy that reaches the point of becoming the anguish of living. His painting, starting from Macchiaioli’s ways, through impressionism, borders on crepuscular post-impressionism; he, the only bohemian artist in Palermo, interprets his city in a singular way, giving us autumnal visions of its modern tree-lined avenues, making it more similar to Nordic capitals than Mediterranean cities. Even his Sicilian landscapes, rural or marine, they often dress the light of the autumn and winter months, making leaden atmospheres very different from the island radiance, so well interpreted by an artist like Lojacono. The many aspects that can be found in Catti’s work, also testified by the many unpublished works in the exhibition, make him a complex artist, who also practiced photography with interesting results. Catti disappeared at the age of 59, poor and sick; in the exhibition a section is dedicated to his followers, his son Aurelio, the only one of the four who took up the path of painting, and Erminio Kremp, a close friend of his, influenced by his unmistakable style. also testified by the many unpublished works in the exhibition, make him a complex artist, who also practiced photography with interesting results. Catti disappeared at the age of 59, poor and sick; in the exhibition a section is dedicated to his followers, his son Aurelio, the only one of the four who took up the path of painting, and Erminio Kremp, his dear friend, influenced by his unmistakable style. also testified by the many unpublished works in the exhibition, make him a complex artist, who also practiced photography with interesting results. Catti disappeared at the age of 59, poor and sick; in the exhibition a section is dedicated to his followers, his son Aurelio, the only one of the four who took up the path of painting, and Erminio Kremp, his dear friend, influenced by his unmistakable style