Yeterday I made (the final?) treck to a unnamed gallery in Norhtern Italy to collect one of my my paintings destined for a possible show in London. It’s six hours round trip, and I arrived, set up a dvd for the girls to watch and got down to the business of removing framing wood and staples to free the stretcher from the canvas, so that the painting (2×2 meters) can be rolled for shipping. I am an expert at this, and do not recomend you doing it unless you’ve first done it several times with minor works. The Gallerist was very nice and the handler cheerily helped me with the work. Before I left, i had to sign a few “authenticazione”. Authenticazione are basically photos of my painting, that I write “Autentico” on the back and pen my signature, which are then given to the paitning’s collector for h is archive. I was pleased to discover that one of these photos was of a painting I did in 1999, which I hadn’t seen since, as I forgot to photograph it before it left the studio. I aske if the photo could be sent to me on email. It could.
Three hours and several hundred Kilometers later, I opened my email in Tuscany to find the image waiting for me like a dollar bill discovered in the pockets of fresh-out-the -dryer jeans, all warm and soft. readers from Florence may recognize him as Erriquez, lead singer of the BandoBardòt, but then the file name begged for inquisition: it read: “Nostalghia.jpg.”
I’m fairly sure I would never have named a painting of mine “nostalghia!” particolarly with an “H” after the “G”. Has someone at the unnamed gallery been making up names for my paintings? Did someone there actually believe “nostalghia” was going to help it sell?? And, this last question ever more disturbing:
Did “Nostalghia” help it sell?
