Enrico Donati "Tower of the Alchemist: Creation of the Sun" 1947
I've been meaning to write about this unbelievable Enrico Donati show for ages, and held off only because I thought I might be able to see it in person when I was in SF this past week. It was not in the stars for me, alas, but if you are able to have the opportunity I did not, please don't miss it. "Prima Materia" at the Weinstein Gallery is perhaps the most comprehensive Donati retrospective ever done. It features paintings, sculptures, and assemblages made by this undersung surrealist (and otherwise) master, and celebrates his myriad periods, while tracing a spiritual through-line between them:
"..[O]ne cannot help noticing a pronounced similarity of spirit and intent. It makes itself felt in many ways and at every stage of his career: in the provocative, primal imagery of his Surrealist days, in the color-drenched, enigmatic icons of his middle period, and in the magical, richly patterned pictorial riddles of his later years. To all of these works certain words—magical, enigmatic, primal, and provocative—invariably apply, words that can be applied with equal justification to much of what is best and most significant in Native American art."
Though Donati is hard to classify, his interest in the numinous shines out of all of his rich, peculiar creations. "Prima Materia" celebrates this sorcerer of color and shape via a beautiful catalog and of course the work itself, which is on view at the gallery through April 9th.
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