Franco Adami is a great sculptor and a lovable man. One may have the privilege of meeting him at a galà of Queen Elzabeth or in the streets of his home town Pietrasanta but here he puts you at your ease. He is available to talk about his animalier creations and his life, with the cordiality of one who knows the world and has a long international career behind him.For Adami "in art life is wed with work, man meets artist. An artist who does not know how to be a man, who does not manage to be himself, is only one actor on the stage."
We met him during his exhibition in Rome , at the headquarters of B.M.W. and there the idea came into my head to ask him some questions, to get to know his world and art beyond fashions and time.
Maestro, where did you learn to sculpt? When did you start?
I started very young, attending an art school in Cascina. Only after my arrival in Paris, in 1958, and the long apprenticeship at the Lourve, did I discover complete mastery of the different techniques and materials, especially wood. But it was in 1972, with the opening of my own atelier at Pietrasanta, that I began the great experience with marble and bronze, which are today my favourite elements.
Your art is defined as "art animalier": could you explain why? I imagine it depends on the vast range of animals present in your works, centuries-old tortoises, powerful rhinoceri, crysalises, stylised cats, ladybirds.
I make not only animals; my sculpture extends to wider horizons (even with the creation of proud totems and mysterious N.d.r.); I find, however, that the boundary between human beings and the world of animals is extremely thin. It is not by chance that the energy of my creations seeks an equilibrium between these two worlds.
What are your springs of inspiration? Is there a reference to African art with its primordial themes, as your ancient energy?
Africa has adopted me and I have adopted Africa. This sums up my long relationship with the black continent, which I have disseminated in my works starting with the great exhibition in Abidjan in 1979. "les Arts Premiers" undoubtedly form part of the cultural transmission of mankind.
Your sculptures of animals, and not only these, are admired all over the world; you are considered the leader of the "New narrative representation" movement, a cliché, I may say, you don't like. What is the message of your art?
Once again equilibrium, balanced between the past and present, looking to the future, at the eternal struggle between instinct and reason, between man and beast. If contemporary man is continually in search of these points of synthesis, perhaps my art can contribute to finding them.
What is your relationship to France?
The choice of Paris starting from 1958 was not casual. The air of Toscany in those years had become provincial, while La Ville Lumière was a world stage. I soon found myself at ease and there I made friends for life, with Zadkine, Collamartini, Cesar
What do you think of the world of art in Rome?
I don't know the Rome art ambience very well, nor its leading figures. Rome is a unique city in the world with an extraordinary past , but perhaps it is still too much oriented towards this past.
How come you decided to exhibit your sculptures in Rome, among other things in un unlikely place like the headquarters of BMW?
The idea came from BMW, not from me. However, I understood immediately that my works happily married with the essential features of the German car company. So the event was born.
Can you briefly describe to me how you carry out a work of sculpture, whether monumental or in reduced dimensions?
The idea comes first. To carry it out, I first I do a drawing. And as, for the sculptor, in the drawing is the form and the essence, it is necessary naturally to know how to draw; after which I do a sculpture in clay, in a kind of collusion between pattern/drawing and earth. Then I make a form in plaster, which has to be perfect. Once perfection is reached, I pass to the execution of the sculpture in marble. I make a very careful selection of materials; marble from Carrara, black marble from Belgium, yellow from Spain and red from Verona but, for other sculptures, bronze, onix from Pakistan, silver.Naturally I rely on the help of assistants, students and collaborators. The artist in fact creates and does not always execute the work.And so from the times of medieval workshops. And at 73 years the years pass .
What will be your next exhibitions?
I shall exhibit at the Museum of Valencia in Spain, in Shanghai, in the Piretti gallery
in Knokke le Zoiule on the North Sea and for the usual exhibition at the Goinard Gallery in Paris. Then at Pietrasanta, at the end of February, another door will open in the ancient city walls beside historic gates, by which will be exhibited a monumental sculpture in bronze "The Judgment of Minotaur", a symbolical welcome to the "Little Athens" of artists.
