A book on the world of the artist Puccetto, Pollock on the Fse

Until 2023 the 34+228 Tutino- toll boothTricase of the South Eastern Railways hosted the art studio of Antonio Rocco D’Aversa said Puccetto. Toll collector by profession but artist by vocation, he chose to practice painting after seeing the exhibition of Fernando De Filippi, the well-known artist from Lecce who directed the Brera Academy of Fine Arts for a long time. For thirty years, until his death last year, Puccetto painted hundreds of canvases (some of which are now in Helen Mirren’s collection), transforming his toll booth into a place for creation.

For some a true artist, a new Jackson Pollock capable of listening to his interiority by following the pure and simple gesture of the hand, for others a simple “rag-taker” as he himself defined himself. Animated by humility and a spirit of initiative, Puccetto is today a divisive character. To him and to the deep friendship that united them for twenty years Loredana Moretti dedicated her photographic volume “A story of colors and freedom” (Sfera Edizioni). The book will be presented tomorrow evening, exactly one year after Puccetto’s death, at 6pm, at the Must in Lecce, inside the cloister in front of the bookshop. A return for the photographer from Bari, who in 2022, in the Lecce museum, ordered her solo exhibition Ex Opis, dedicated to the shots taken inside the Lecce Psychiatric Hospital. The new photographic volume confirms the vision and technique of Loredana Moretti, in which a close-up look that enhances detail and accidental shots is combined with a refined chromatic range. The book is divided into six sections which constitute as many fragments of Puccetto’s life and works.

The Tutino toll booth

We start from the workplace, the Tutino toll booth, a meeting space, a place of creation and a “sinners’ refuge” as Puccetto himself liked to define it. We continue with the story in images of his theatrical performances and his dance of colors. The artist-boxmaker moves around the canvas, lives in the work, determining it with his movements. The portraits section highlights Puccetto’s gaze, direct and without filters. A story of friendship and complicity emerges. Finally, the last part of the book tells of Puccetto’s absence, of the void left by his premature passing. The images were taken after his death, the day before the toll gate was finally closed. Every wall still seems to indicate his presence. “On an operational level – writes Denis Curti, author of the critical text in the catalog – Loredana Moretti moves like a detective. She is skilled in following Puccetto’s events. Shot after shot, the photographer lines up those dynamics useful to prove her artistic legacy, created in toll booth 34 of the South Eastern Railways, while the trains were passing by. A secret life, finally revealed.” The presentation of the book will take place in the presence of the author, Denis Curti, curator of photography and contemporary art exhibitions and Claudia Branca, Director of Must. Journalist Lara Gigante will moderate the meeting.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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