Jorio Vivarelli

His father was a simple stonemason, the owner of a small marble workshop. to stay in school, first at the Pistoian Art School of Fabio Casanova, then at the Art Institute of Florence (a student of Bruno Innocenti), young Jorio Vivarelli began very early to use his father's tools, getting used to the most humble jobs. In 1942, he was called to arms and sent to the Balkan Front. A few days later, on 8 September 1943, he was taken prisoner by German troops. This was the start of a long period of imprisonment in concentration camps in Hungary, Austria, and later Germany. Oppressed by the physical and moral death in these places, he managed to survive, to remain alive to the tragedy that inevitably marked his existence as a man and an artist. In 1946, Vivarelli returned home and resumed creative activity. Doing a little bit of everything, the needs of survival once again determined his choices. In 1951, he found a job at the Michelucci foundry in Pistoia, where he met the architect Giovanni Michelucci. This was a decisive meeting for his artistic career that immediately began a strong partnership. From this relationship came the first Crucifixes found in the churches Michelucci built (Parish Church of Larderello, Church of la Vergine in Pistoia, Church of San Giovanni in Florence). The mystical emotivity of his emblematic, painful works contrast an open and suffering human empathy, a man’s (and also the artist’s) cry written in pieces of naturalistic truth but in close contact with caustic expressionistic distortions. The model was perhaps the sculpture of Giovanni Pisano, enclosed in Pistoia’s Romanesque churches that the young Vivarelli haunted, attracted by the charm and emotional charge of the 14th-century sculpture. In 1955, Jorio Vivarelli met the American architect and exhibition curator Oskar Storonov during the Florentine exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright – an encounter that developed into a strong relationship of work and friendship. With Storonov, Vivarelli recognized and addressed the problems of sculptures placed in cities and urban areas. His works were located in large squares in Philadelphia and Detroit, taking the artist from Pistoia to Michigan for six years. The intrarealist group was created from the array of acquaintances and that stimulating turbulent period, quite frenzied for the artist. It was officially introduced in 1967, in Florence, at Palazzo Strozzi, with the intent and necessity "to express something new and to say it differently". While he had taught regularly at the Art Institute in Pistoia since 1959, Vivarelli also had numerous important exhibitions in Italy and abroad in the following years. His continuous creative inner voice always tapped into the events of human existence, with a sculptural proficiency given by the removal and hollowing out of material to reclaim and bring out an interiority like the pulsating soul of life. A sort of revenge, of triumph, but also a testimony of drama and document of a tragedy exploded, which was turned into redemption only by a superior, albeit human will and force.   His father was a simple stonemason, the owner of a small marble workshop. to stay in school, first at the Pistoian Art School of Fabio Casanova, then at the Art Institute of Florence (a student of Bruno Innocenti), young Jorio Vivarelli began very early to use his father's tools, getting used to the most humble jobs. In 1942, he was called to arms and sent to the Balkan Front. A few days later, on 8 September 1943, he was taken prisoner by German troops. This was the start of a long period of imprisonment in concentration camps in Hungary, Austria, and later Germany. Oppressed by the physical and moral death in these places, he managed to survive, to remain alive to the tragedy that inevitably marked his existence as a man and an artist. In 1946, Vivarelli returned home and resumed creative activity. Doing a little bit of everything, the needs of survival once again determined his choices. In 1951, he found a job at the Michelucci foundry in Pistoia, where he met the architect Giovanni Michelucci. This was a decisive meeting for his artistic career that immediately began a strong partnership. From this relationship came the first Crucifixes found in the churches Michelucci built (Parish Church of Larderello, Church of la Vergine in Pistoia, Church of San Giovanni in Florence). The mystical emotivity of his emblematic, painful works contrast an open and suffering human empathy, a man’s (and also the artist’s) cry written in pieces of naturalistic truth but in close contact with caustic expressionistic distortions. The model was perhaps the sculpture of Giovanni Pisano, enclosed in Pistoia’s Romanesque churches that the young Vivarelli haunted, attracted by the charm and emotional charge of the 14th-century sculpture. In 1955, Jorio Vivarelli met the American architect and exhibition curator Oskar Storonov during the Florentine exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright – an encounter that developed into a strong relationship of work and friendship. With Storonov, Vivarelli recognized and addressed the problems of sculptures placed in cities and urban areas. His works were located in large squares in Philadelphia and Detroit, taking the artist from Pistoia to Michigan for six years. The intrarealist group was created from the array of acquaintances and that stimulating turbulent period, quite frenzied for the artist. It was officially introduced in 1967, in Florence, at Palazzo Strozzi, with the intent and necessity "to express something new and to say it differently". While he had taught regularly at the Art Institute in Pistoia since 1959, Vivarelli also had numerous important exhibitions in Italy and abroad in the following years. His continuous creative inner voice always tapped into the events of human existence, with a sculptural proficiency given by the removal and hollowing out of material to reclaim and bring out an interiority like the pulsating soul of life. A sort of revenge, of triumph, but also a testimony of drama and document of a tragedy exploded, which was turned into redemption only by a superior, albeit human will and force.