Cammi, Marcello
untitled
Marcello Cammi, untitled, 1994, red wine and ballpoint pen on cardboard, 17,7 x 12,5 cm photo : Amélie Blanc, Atelier de numérisation – Ville de Lausanne, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Author
Cammi, Marcello,
(1912-1994), Italy
Biography
Marcello Cammi (1912–1994) was born on the Ligurian coast near San Remo, Italy. During his youth, he worked in the family business, which produced sculpture, various articles of garden furniture, and decorations for cemeteries. In 1935, he moved with his wife and son to the hamlet of Arziglia, near Bordighera. Their house was surrounded by a lush garden with a stream running through it.
Cammi began painting and sculpting at around the age of forty, using many different types of supports and techniques. The garden and the banks of the stream were soon filled with hundreds of sculptures, mainly in cement and mostly large figures with serious faces, sometimes with a Christ-like appearance, as well as bare-breasted women. He also drew and painted, and considered this work as important as his sculpture. He would offer visitors drawings made with red wine or coffee, in which eyes and the outlines of faces similar to those in his sculpture garden could be made out. He also seemed to rely on the haphazard shapes of wine and coffee stains to build his compositions. After his accidental death in 1994, his wife continued to look after his sculptures for several years. Ten years later, the entire garden was damaged by a violent storm, leading the local authorities to demolish it for good.