PAINTINGS ON SLANA (Mario D’Anna)

Mario D’Anna

PAINTINGS ON SLANA

Mario D’ANNA: WATERCOLOURS

Mario D’ANNA, Italian painter, born 1933, living in Como, Italy, discovered SLANA as his inspiration late, but it became fruitful. In 1987 he had an exhibition of his 200 watercolour paintings on SLANA in the Italian town of Mariano Comese (Mauri Gallery).

D’Anna is himself a victim of war when a forgotten hand grenade tore off his hand, and perhaps this is the reason he was the first painter of SLANA and got attached to it so much and provided us with paintings showing everything from the scorching sun to the burned bodies of innocent inmates. His paintings are full of evocation of life that had been distinguished here and beauty of knowledge of a contemporary man judging the crimes of our century. With this value given to the sun and rock radiating with inspiring sadness and with modern paintings 20x50cm in size, this painter’s dream which reveals year 1941 on the island that did not deserve it, is a consolable voice that joins our wishes and assumptions that SLANA as a metaphor for a concentration camp will become a symbol of evil that must never happen again.

Watercolour (and oil) paintings by Mario D’Anna will remain in Yugoslavia for several years and are available for exhibitions in our towns. Centres that apply in time will be able to have them. I prepared and opened the first exhibition with 120 paintings in summer 1987 in Novalja on Pag (“Loža” Gallery, Caskin).

Mario D’Anna, 22100 Como, Via Volpi 7, Italia

(From service: A.Zemljar, 41020 Zagreb, Siget 15a; tel. 692-616)