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What do Bruno
DaVenzia and Bruce G. Newman have in common? Everything but the name.
The myth of Bruno DaVenzia:
Born on a working farm in the Patagonian region near Argentina (1949) , Bruno Da Venzia, emigrated to Buenos Aires (1963)
for years of classic education and artistic studies. Da Venzia’s early work (pre1973) is in Colombian, Brazilian and
Uruguayan collections and private museums. After a stint with the Urbanista movement for social reform in Uruguay the artist
emigrated to the soviet state to study at the Patrice Lumumba University, in Moscow.
The dualities of Moscow
caused Da Venzia‘s immediate disenchantment with the realities of soviet life and he began a clandestine career of populist
modern work. This, pre-perestroika work was political in nature, painted under the name “Boris Natanovitz”. The
controversy erupted in the intellectual circles, causing too much attention by the “apparatchik” and earned the
artist a trip east for an adjustment period in the gulags.
His work can be found at the museum dedicated to the
works of former prisoners at The State Museum for Collective Activities for Reeducation in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic,. . In
these earlier works, Da Venzia is noted for making his own paints from materials available in the prison camps including
plants, human and animal materials as well as minerals and earths constructed during his detainment in the work gulags of
the former Soviet state. This work was highly sought out by European collections.
Da Venzia, as a result of Glasnost
and Perestroika movements, was released from prison. The artist moved as far west as he could. After the fall of the Soviet
Union, the artist chose to remain in his home in the former occupied satellite state of Estonia.
The Artist is
currently visiting the United States for treatment of conditions developed while incarcerated. All of his later works and
those produced in the United States are from commercially available supplies due to time constraints.
The
Truth behind the legend:
Bruce Newman has painted under the names Boris Natanovitch and Bruno DaVenzia
for the last forty years:The name Bruno DaVenzia was taken by the artist in a tribute to the Jews of northern Europe who were
prohibited from joining the painters guild and changed their names to hide their identity. The name first appeared as D'avanza,
"on the avneue" or "of the street" the label used by the artist in the manufacture of leather apparel
in the 1980s.
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