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Indepth Arts News:
"Street Life: Lithographic Prints by Edoardo di Muro"
2001-03-23 until 2001-04-16
BAT Centre
Durban, ,
ZA South Africa
Street Life, an exhibition of lithograph drawings by Italian-born artist
Edoardo di Muro, opens at the BAT Centre's Menzi Mcunu Gallery on 23 March
and runs until 16 April. Born in Cuneo, northern Italy in 1944, Di Muro worked at various jobs,
including gamekeeper, agricultural worker and sailor, before devoting
himself entirely to his drawing.
His works have been exhibited in many African countries as well as in
France, Italy and the United States.
A long-time resident of Dakar, Di Muro now lives in Italy.
An initial series of drawings was published in 1990 under the title
'Afrique' (Editions Hatier) and a second one came out in 1995 in a book
entitled 'Afrique Capitals' (Editions, Sepia, Paris).
Edoardo di Muro's drawings are appreciated for both their artistic and
documentary value. In them one can study at leisure the architectural
details of the magnificent 'Brazilian' houses in Lagos, or the solid
colonial structures of Douala or scrutinise the leaves of the trees,
ubiquitous and rendered with almost obsessive attention to detail.
Nor are the clothing details drawn at random - the decorative motif of a
given page of T-shirt situates the drawing precisely in time and
geographical space. Ethnic groups and countries are further identified by
hair styles, ritual scarring or other bodily markings.
Beneath Edoardo di Muro's pen, urban Africa flows onto the drawing with all
its diversity of living quarters, ethnic influences, social contrasts and
with all the humour and high spirits of its inhabitants who, like Di Muro
himself, never abandons these qualities.
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