One of the most famous sons of Graniti, this small town in the province of Messina, is certainly Giuseppe Mazzullo, an all-round artist who has left us a thriving sculptural production.
Although Mazzullo then spent much of his life away from Sicily, the relationship with his native land and in particular Graniti will always remain close. Here, then, is a small summary of the life of the great artist and the type of relationship that has always linked him to Graniti.
Who is Giuseppe Mazzullo: studies and life
Giuseppe Mazzullo is known for being a Great artist, having dedicated all his art to sculpture made with different materials. His family has very modest origins given that, when he was born on 15 February 1913, his father Rosario was a master builder and his mother, Giovanna Malita, took care of the family.
His future was already marked: he had to follow in his father's footsteps and one day take his place as master builder. However, his fate decided differently given that as a young man, due to a trivial accident, he suffered a bad fall which left consequences for his entire life and prevented him from carrying out heavy jobs like his parent's. The family therefore decided to send him to primary school and, later, to send him to the a tailor's shop to learn the trade. In 1923, therefore, he moved to Taormina to learn the secrets of cutting and sewing, then he moved a few years later to Rome, where he decided to follow the evening courses ofAcademy of the English Nude, but he didn't stay long because he soon realized that his destiny was very different.
The relationship between art and Mazzullo: his studies
During his time in Rome, Giuseppe came into contact with some sculptors and understood that this was the art form best suited to his skills. For this reason in 1930 he decided to move to Umbria where he enrolled in the sculpture school which was part of theAcademy of Fine Arts of Perugia where he specialized above all in drawing from antiquity. A year later, in a move of rebellion towards his family and in search of a stage name, he decided to change his surname from Marzullo, that of his father, to Mazzullo, which will remain with him for his whole life as a label of recognizability.
A few years later, for family reasons, Giuseppe was forced to return to Sicily where, however, he did not abandon sculpture but dedicated himself above all to life drawing. In particular, he was attracted by the concept of chiaroscuro and the all-round research which then took shape with one of his first most famous works, Crazy a wax sculpture and bronze which he created for the National Art Quadrennial which was held in 1935 in Rome.
The sculpture works of Giuseppe Mazzullo
It was only the first of a series of successes that Mazzullo achieved in the field of sculpture. His name began to circulate in artistic circles and beyond, so much so that in 1936 they commissioned his first public work, that monument dedicated to the war dead, like the title of his work, which he first created for the municipality of Francavilla and then for that of Gaggi. A few years later, precisely in 1941, Giuseppe went to Carrara to find the raw material for another work, a bas-relief carved in marble which had the theme of Rome against Carthage and which he created to participate in a competition held to embellish the palace of 'INPS in Rome.
Precisely on this occasion, Mazzullo met Martini who became his teacher as well as the main point of reference for all his research on plasticism. The panel in question was greatly influenced by fifteenth-century and Gothic influences, the same style that the sculptor also used for another famous work, that of Maternity and Childhood with which he won the national ceramic competition in 1942.
A few years earlier Giuseppe had obtained the teaching chair at the Art Institute of Rome and he then moved to the capital where his house had become a point of reference for artists of the caliber of Ungaretti, Get off, Gattuso e Zavattini.
The return to Sicily and the sculpture workshop
In the Seventies, after having spent most of his life in Rome, Giuseppe decided to return to Sicily but certainly not to abandon his job. He therefore left the chair at the academy and moved to Taormina where he created a large artistic laboratory, dedicated above all to sculpture. In this period he decided to consolidate his relationship with his native land and therefore dedicate himself to sculpture in lava stone and granite, two materials that were found in abundance in these areas.
In this same period he also decided to dedicate himself to larger works than usual, preferring monumental ones which were also commissioned by institutions and municipalities, such as the Liberty, built in 1970 and installed in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, or Musa, monument dedicated to Salvatore Pugliatti which instead is dated 1977 and is found Messina. Beautiful too the rebirth, created for municipality of Salemi, which he completed in 1986 and is probably his most challenging last work. Giuseppe Mazzullo died in Taormina on 25 August 1988.
The relationship between Giuseppe Mazzullo and Graniti
Although he had left Graniti as a child and probably only returned for short periods during his life, the bond between Graniti - and Sicily more generally - and Giuseppe Mazzullo has always been very close, so much so that it is the municipality of his native village that of Taormina, the town where he died, have decided to dedicate monuments to him. In particular in Graniti there is the Museum of Giuseppe Mazzullo and a street of the same name named after him. In Taormina, however, there is Giuseppe Mazzullo Foundation which is housed in the Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano and contains some of his most significant works. Furthermore, in Graniti there have been various events and exhibitions dedicated to him, in particular in relation to the centenary of his birth in 2013.
