Wooded microcosms inhabited by men and animals the living room where she sat at a table in front of the or characters dominating a stage-like space are the
television set.
oeuvre of Maria Concetta Cassarà’s paintings. The artist
Glancing at programmes, Maria Concetta did
lives in a working-class quarter of Bologna, in north-
not neglect the practice of drawing, although in truth only
central Italy. After a life as a housewife, finding her
her images of women testify to the context of action.
children grown and therefore having more free time for
Often they represent figures dressed in fine evening
herself, Cassarà engaged in various activities, first
clothes and exclusive accessories which, typical of the
above All works are Untitled, 50 x 35 cm, 19.7 x 13.8 ins.
working in a pastry shop and then later on as a
television presenter’s greeting, emerge to assume a
dressmaker. About 10 years ago, already in her sixties,
frontal, central pose. Due to the speed with which
centre Maria Concetta Cassarà at home, 2011, photo: Matteo Cuccodrillo.
she began painting by chance after watching her
television personalities habitually move, appearing and
opposite Untitled, 70 x 50 cm, 27.5 x 19.7 ins.
granddaughter while she drew. From that moment on
then disappearing from the screen, Maria Concetta says
Cassarà dedicated almost every evening, sometimes well
that she is forced to complete such figures with details
into the late hours, to creative accomplishment, wheeling
of her own imagining. As for the rest, a rural topography
a trolley full of sheets of paper, brushes and tempera into
prevails in her representations; there are hills, valleys,