Anthony Pullano’s celebration of Italian culture and heritage
TORONTO – In a disarming moment, a senior level official from one of many Diplomat Corps that make Toronto their temporary home engaged me in a frank exchange, purportedly seeking to “refine their appreciation” of the interchanges among the various communities that make up the GTA. There appeared to be scant value placed on the ephemeral merit inherent in the numerically massive construction projects in which Italian Canadians once provided aggressive leadership.
We have so much more to offer, intervened CIBPA member of the Board, Tony Cipriani, sending me a digital copy of an artistic work by Toronto (now Aurora) based artist and publisher, Anthony Pullano. Tony contended that our modern cultural contributions are the cement that binds the disparate components of our multicultural societies. And in this, he contends, the “second generation” of Italian Canadians play a premier role.
I called Mr. Pullano to experience first-hand how far his contention would take the conversation. Pullano, originally from Pentone, provincia di Catanzaro, Calabria, is a prolific artist whose works have attracted the attention of collectors among the usual “rich and famous”, in Canada and abroad. Julio Iglesias is among them, as are former Canadian Prime Ministers (Jean Chretien, Paul Martin), at least one former Premier and then Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.
As expected, he exhibited his works in places like Catanzaro, Milan and Rome. A senior Prelate in the Vatican acquired one of his paintings, Mother and Child, to hang in his Vatican office.
His wide appeal may be due to both subject matter, genre (and style): painting reflect the impact of Classical Renaissance and Contemporary Abstract. Pullano is of the view that the artistic creative process should, as often as possible, be performed live, even to thematic music. And, he engages in Live Painting Performances in exhibitions, gala events and charitable fundraising ceremonies.
In 2015, the then National Canadian Italian Congress commissioned him to create a painting to celebrate Italian Heritage Month. For him, it was/is important to capture on one platform some, not all, iconic representations of what has defined Italian culture through the millennia in Art, Architecture, Sculpture, Music, Writing and so on.
After deliberations and sketches, he decided on the individuals and events/places that call everyone’s mind to what is Italian – by extension, now Italian Canadian -Heritage, depicting on an oil painting the greatest Italian icons representing Italian culture: Leonardo da Vinci, Dante Alighieri, Giuseppe Verdi , Michael Angelo (through the statue of David), Botticelli (through the face of Spring from his painting Spring), Raffael (through the Three Graces), the Carnival of Venice, and Opera all held up in the painting by a scene of a gondola supported by the string of flowers with the Canadian maple leaf , the Ontario Trillium and an artist’s palette.
Anthony Pullano’s work for Italian Heritage Month; in the pic above, Pullano during the “15-Minute Art Challenge”
