In the '20s and '30s,in Venice,
there was a group of womes painters
who did have, each,a "room of their own".
Fiore Brustolin had her art studio
and ran a school of painting near S.Trovaso.
Emma Ciardi's atelier was in the Fondamenta
Alberti (a fondamenta is a sidewalk
along a canal).
Nearby there was Lina Rosso's studio,
in Calle Lunga S.Barnaba.
And a little further, in fondamenta Rezzonico,
we would have found Bice Lazzari's
atelier, where, among her brushes and
palettes she kept her hand looms on
wich she used to weave scarves, belts,
and other objects designed according to her
aesthetic principles.
On the other side of the Grand Canal
(across the water"as the Venetian say), a short
hop across on the traghetto to S.Angelo,
Alis Levi had her studio, in the Corte dell'Albero.
Not far from there, in Calle degli Orbi
("Blind men's"lane)Miranda Visonà had hers.
At a little distance, near S.Giovanni e
Paolo (where the girls'music
school of the Mendicanti and
the Ospedaletto used to be, from
16th century up to the end of
the "Serenissima"), in Calle
delle Erbe, Gabriella Oreffice had her studio.
Somewhat secluded, but certainly acutely
observant of their environment and the life in it,
these seven women painters pursued
their paintings and
their studies, attended exhibitions, and have
left us their gift of art:
perhaps a last gift for us of the figurative,
when art was turning to be abstract.
We still know very little about their lives.
We assume they must have
come across one another,
they must have met,but whether they actually
frequented one another or met regularly,
we do not know.
Some sixty years later one thing is certain:
they have a common denominator
in the excellence of the work
they produced, pervaded by the culture
of their time and suffused with
the magic of Venice.
Unfortunately their studios have not
been preserved, as such.
Their works, however, can now be found
in their homes of their relatives and collectors,
who have kindly allowed us to put together
the exhibition that you will enjoy here now.
With the present exhibition we are
adding to the research on women
painters of the Veneto.
Its first result is the publication of the volume
"Le tele svelate"(Canvassed Releaved,
Eidos Press 1996),
which is entirely dedicated to the women
painters who lived and worked in Venice and
its mainland territory, the Veneto, from the
XIV century to the present time.
We do hope others yet will join
in this exciting work.

Vittoria Surian