Ciccimarra A Biography

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Although the major portion of the drawings, paintings, & collages of Richard Ciccimarra (1924-1973) were completed in Victoria, British Columbia, his work reveals a sensibility cultivated within & forever marked by the uncertain atmosphere of Vienna between the world wars. Ciccimarra remained one of Vienna's quintessential sons - one of a generation for whom "the past was the present, the present never the now." Frank Nowosad's biography of Richard Ciccimarra is based on a series of memoirs recounted by the artist's mother, his three wives, & the nurse who was with him in Greece in 1973 when he took his own life. Sponsored by the Canada Council, Mr. Nowosad followed a trail throughout Europe & Canada to the people & places which played so vital a role in Ciccimarra's life. He observes Ciccimarra's works from the perspective of the time in which they were created (1947-1973) &, more strikingly, as a reverberation of the Austrian aesthetic & expressionist movements (1898-1918). Mr. Nowosad's ultimate argument is that by virtue of Ciccimarra's cultural origins, his work is a logical extension of the sensibilities first so vividly expressed by Gustav Klimt & Egon Schiele. "Nowosad's chronicle of the painter's tumultuous life is a terrific read, part adventure drama & part psychological thriller."--Elizabeth Godfrey, THE VANCOUVER SUN.