DINO BUZZATI WORKS

Dino Buzzati was an Italian writer, journalist, painter, playwright, librettist, set designer, costume designer, and poet. Dino Buzzati was born at the family villa in San Pellegrino di Belluno on October 16, 1906. He attended the classical high school Giuseppe Parini in Milan and then enrolled in Law to fulfill his family's wishes, graduating in 1928.
Known to most as the author of 'Il deserto dei Tartari', Dino Buzzati was not only a journalist and writer, but above all, as he himself declared, a painter. If some event in his artistic life had gone differently, perhaps today we would remember him for his paintings, drawings, illustrations, or hybrid texts that combine painting and literature. This is the case with Poema a fumetti, where the artist revisits the theme of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice from a modern perspective. This artwork has been considered the first example of a graphic novel and consists of 208 illustrated plates. On the same wavelength is also the last book published by Buzzati in 1971, I miracoli di Val Morel, a collection of paintings with very short captions that represent imaginary ex-votos featuring in the literary fiction Santa Rita.
With reference to his preference for painting as an artistic expression, Dino Buzzati stated in an interview that he was "a victim" of a misunderstanding, namely that he was a painter who, as a hobby, also worked as a writer and journalist, but for too long a time. At the same time, however, he declared that writing or painting was the same for him, because in both cases his goal was to tell stories to the public.
As a painter, Dino Buzzati is strongly inspired by surrealism. At the same time, he does not forgo modernist influences such as pop or neo-expressionist ones. From these starting points, the artist creates his personal poetics that encompasses a strong nostalgia for romanticism. It is precisely from this fairy-tale approach that the narrative sub-plot probably arises. This aspect is evident in the transfiguration that Buzzati performs of everyday life into a strongly other dimension.
A striking example is the artist's most famous artwork, namely Piazza del Duomo, which dates back to 1952. In this painting, Buzzati depicts the famous Lombard cathedral as if it were a limestone structure, completely immersed in nature and surrounded by a rocky landscape that aims to imitate the original architectural layout of the square.
The same type of atmosphere, that is, gloomy but not falling into the somber and anguished but not desperate, is part of another of his famous works, Le anime in pena. In this painting, we find a group of spirits haunting an entire city at night. The ghosts, similar in size to the buildings, are the only inhabitants of that urban representation that exudes anguish. This vivid tension generated between city and nature is part of all his poetics, but also of his life. Influencing this aspect were the places where he was born and raised, San Pellegrino di Belluno and Milan, places that have marked his existence.
The themes he tackles in his painting career intertwine with literary ones, forming a world where the real and the fantastic dimensions merge, creating realms characterized by mystery, destiny, expectation, and a melancholic vision of love. Those who appreciated Buzzati's pictorial work have stated that he wrote while painting and painted while writing. Even in his literary works, in fact, the word evoked an image, while the latter has always been part of the words. Both the aforementioned Poema a fumetti and I miracoli di Valmorel are examples of this stylistic imprint of his.
All these features are part of Buzzati's first exhibition, Storie dipinte of 1958 and that of 1966 at the Galleria Gian Ferrari, both in Milan.
An international dimension, however, was given by the exhibition in Paris at the Galleria La Pochade. The consecration of Buzzati as a painter, unfortunately, occurred after his death in 1972 with the retrospective at Palazzo Reale di Milano in 1991.