Subject

Bust of Dr. Anlyan, Chancelor of Duke University, North Carolina,
Bust of Dr. Anlyan Unveiled, article

The Ceramics Institute of Faenza

Faience, Italy
9th Feb.1990

To: Mr. S. Bonaiuto
Cleveland, Ohio
Dear Maestro:

I am happy to inform you that your two statues which form part of the “Large Nativity” in ceramics (The Holy Virgin holding the Child, and St. Joseph) were greatly admired by His Holiness Pope John Paul II when it was displayed in the “Hall of the Swiss Guards” at the Papal Villa of Castel Gandolfo ( Rome).

We understand that the “Large Nativity” created by the ceramic masters of Faience, of which your statues form the central group, will be erected in St. Peters Square in Rome during the next Christmas holidays.

There is great cause for satisfaction for all involved. It attests to the high artistic standards that you and you colleagues have achieved. Furthermore, it demonstrates what a positive creative influence your stay in Faenza was, the results of which I highly compliment you.

I was pleased to learn of your numerous commissions in the United States. I especially admire some of your recent works, such as “The Christ Victorious” in the Benedictine Abbey, Knollwood’s “Mother of Mercy,” and the portrait bust of Dr. B - Anlyan, Chancellor of Duke University, N.C. It pleases me greatly to observe how well you have developed the ancient and noble art of ceramic sculpture in your great and friendly country. I sincerely hope you will produce more works like that of the Chancellor - truly splendid - the “cotto” finish lends such exciting tones, humanizing the subject with astonishing spontaneity. Works like this should amply gratify you and enrich your country with enduring works, destined to leave an indelible mark.

I look forward to meeting you often in Faenza. Exchanging ideas with you is always very productive and valid to our mutual love of ceramic art.

Please accept, dearest Maestro, my fondest and most cordial greetings.

Alteo Dolcini
President

The Artwork Of Sandro Bonaiuto

AN ITALIAN SCULPTOR FROM CLEVELAND TO FAENZA (FAIENCE)

Artistic works in ceramics and sculptures in different materials ranging from terracotta to marble, make-up the production of this artist who expresses himself in every medium in fully rounded figures and rarely allows himself to be influenced by colors.

The themes very from compositions in ceramics to portraits in marble, in works varying in size from small statues to very large works all having the characteristics typical of expressionism.

Sandro (Santo) Bonaiuto was born in Cleveland (Ohio) of Italian parents and has lived in Italy since 1965 establishing contact with the ceramists of Faenza since 1978; in fact he lives and works between Bagnacavallo and Faenza. The fine quality of Faenza's ceramics have inspired him to create a larger than life Nativity (Presepio), filled with love, in terracotta ceramics, and finally in marble sculptures full of personality. Naturally the number of years this artist has lived in Italy has greatly influenced his understanding of sculpture; strong and dynamic compositions of the Michelangelo type; expressive portraits which bring to mind Federico Barroci and Andrea Sansovino.

In his "Holy Family", a ceramic composition which he made in 1982, we observe that all of the personages of this Nativity have an immense expressivity which expands in our minds far beyond the limits of the representation itself. We would like to single out the figure of the Virgin Mary - a woman extemely happy to have in her arms the holy infant.

The portrait of a poet (Apollo) with his brows crowned in laurel leaves, executed in white ceramic - underlines the dramatic elements of this personage - austere and sure of himself,magnetizing everyone in his presence.

The sculpture fragment done in white marble makes us recall certain very figurative works done by the great Henry Moor.

This is a precise piece of sulpture, prismatic in certain details while rough and dramatic in others yet complete in its integrity. In this scultor grace and sensitivity are always alternated with force and vigor. The statues of the larger than life Nativity - which were given as a gift to Pope John Paul II, complete the overall vision of this artist's works,who is able to expand fron sacred to profane subjects.

Among his works we would like to single out the interesting "Flight into Egypt" the model for the Holy Family.

This sculptor, who is also a painter, more than anything else feels the great fascination of camic compositions. He preferes to work in terracotta for its possibilities of being modeled, shaped into images he would like to bring to life.

Therefore his field of action expands from small sculptures in terracotta to white marble of lage proportions.

Truely a many faceted sculptor from Ohio who has found in Italy, in Faenza, the ideal atmosphere to create his works of art; and he does so with sensitivity and efficiency.

Tony Bonavita
Art Critic for the "TEMPO"
Rome, Italy.

Duke Dialogue, July 14, 1989, p.7, by Ron Ferrell

Sculptor puts emotion into new bust of Anlyan

After working for weeks in a Central Campus studio, shaping tetracotta material into a portrait of warmth and caring, sculptor Sandro Bonaiuto is working on a new bust of university chancellor William C. Anlyan, M.D.

Arising from a Tudor column, the bust shows Anlyan in his chancellor's robes and characteristic bow tie. The bust looks slightly from the left to the right, and although done in a dignified, classical style, Bonaiuto said he used the terra-cotta material to express warmth, particularly in the eyes and smile.

"I wanted to bring out the truth of Dr. Anlyan," said Bonaiuto. "I'm not interested in bringing myself to the fore. The important element is the sitter and his personality. I wanted to express that Dr. Anlyan is a humane, warm human being. All that is captured in his face."

The sculpture was commissioned by an anonymous donor on the occasion of Anlyan becoming university chancellor. The work will be displayed in the lobby of Anlyan Tower in the North Division of the hospital, said Janice Palmer, director of Medical Center Cultural Affairs. The portrait of Anlyan now in the lobby will be moved elsewhere in the hospital, she said.

"We're pleased to have such a fine rendering of Dr. Anlyan to recognize his move from the medical center to the university at large," Palmer said.

Final touches on the bust were done earlier last month following a visit to the studio by Anlyan, Bonaiuto said. Several steps remain-including construction of a mold and preparation with special Italian waxes- and it will be several months before the sculpture is unveiled.

"I am delighted with a very generous, albeit anonymous donor has made it possible that we honor Bill Anlyan in the traditional manner for medical leadership by placing this fine sculpture in the building named for him," said Ralph Snyderman, M.D., chancellor of health affairs.

A native of Cleveland, Bonaiuto has spent the last 22 years as an artist in Italy. He currently lives in Bologna and has gained international recognition for his portraits, religious art and other classical style sculptures. A creche [nativity scene] with madonna and child he did on commission for the town of Faenza, Italy, was presented to the Pope in 1984 and is now in the Vatican.

He will return to Italy to do the final stages of the project, but he plans to settle in Ohio soon. That decision was made as a gesture of respect to his brother, who recently was killed by a drunken driver in Cleveland. The brother wanted Bonaiuto to bring his career to the United States.

Bonaiuto, who has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, was selected by the donor to do the commission.
"I was able to talk with Dr. Anlyan a couple of times, and I talked frequently with the people who knew him," Bonaiuto said. "I saw him at work, and I studied the portraits of him. From these I got the idea of the personality that I wanted to express."

His use of terra cotta, although somewhat unusual for a portrait, was right for this work because it can be a very expressive material, he said.

The Plain Dealer, Sunday, July 2, 1988

Cleveland tenor carves a niche as a sculptor

Visit to Italy was a turning point in life

By Helen Cullinan, art critic

Sandro Bonaiuto had been living in Italy for 22 years when he received news last December that his brother Frank, and his sister in law, Josephine, had been killed while crossing the street to view a yule light display here. The tragedy, which brought him home, also gave him the opportunity to complete his first sculptural commission in Cleveland.

Bonaiuto is well known for his larger-than-life “The Holy Family” sculpture that was a gift in 1984 from the Italian city of Faenza to Pope John Paul II. His new works, a life-sized, wax-glazed “Christ the Wayfarer” and “Mother of Mercy”, will be placed in the mausoleum of Knollwood Cemetery in Mayfield Heights.

The life-sized partial figures, modeled in an elegantly classical style were commissioned by Knollwood Cemetery director Robert Rogers, a family friend who had planned to visit Bonaiuto’s studio in Italy to discuss the work. “The tragedy brought him to us, instead,” Rogers said. “We are pleased with the work. He is a genius.”

Bonaiuto, who said he accepted the commission in memory of his brother and sister-in-law, made sketches of two beautifully compassionate figures representing comfort and solace for the bereaved.

Sandy Bonaiuto left Cleveland in 1965 after the death of his parents. An operatic tenor, he had studied voice at Baldwin-Wallace College and with private coaches, and had performed with the Cafarelli Opera, Cleveland Opera Theater (now Lyric Opera Cleveland), Karamu Theater and in churches and at private functions in the 1950s and early 1960s.

The decision to visit relatives in Italy with another brother, Norman, marked the turning point of both their lives. Sandro, upon learning that the Italian government prohibited foreigners from singing in state-owned opera houses, got a job as official translator for the English-speaking embassy of Pakistan in Rome. The brothers spoke Italian, French, and English.) The job lasted for seven years, during which time he studied the art of sculpture and other art restoration under the master Marcello Lanci, and reveled in the citywide environment of artistic wonders.

Neither brother had studied art beyond high school but they had art as a common bond. They had haunted the galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art together as boys, and struck up a friendship with an artist who gave them painting and drawing lessons free, and introduced them to European culture.

Norman became private secretary and interpreter for a jet-set viscountess in Paris, where he now lives and works as a painter. When the embassy job in Rome ended, Sandro planned to return to Cleveland. He went to say goodbye to relatives, the Lea Gamberinis, who lived in Bologna. While there, he received his first commission as a sculptor.

“Mrs. Gamborini asked me to do a bust for her new villa, and made arrangements for me to work in a factory in Faenza,” Bonaiuto said. ( Faenza, near Bologna, is the famous Italian ceramic center from which the term “faience” gets its name.) “I made the bust, and stayed on at the factory for three years studying techniques of terra cotta and glazing. Here I was in my 30s, and I realized that this was where I should have been all along.”

His career as a sculptor was officially launched during that period, when his small glazed, terracotta “Holy Family” sculpture won first prize in the annual Masters of Fire exhibition of the city’s ceramic sculptors’ association. Commissions flowed in and he was asked by the city to replicate the sculpture in larger scale as the city’s gift to Pope John Paul II and the Vatican City.

Bonaiuto also studied marble and other stone carving for four years with prominent contemporary Italian sculptor Graziano Pompili at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. Pompili, himself a modernist, had defended Bonaiuto when another professor suggested that Bonaiuto modernize his style. “You feel this (way of working figuratively) deeply, and that is what is important,” he said.

And Bonaiuto possessed marvelous skills. Looking back, he feels that destiny propelled him. He has found references in fresco painters and sculptures by the name of Bonaiuto (an old name meaning “good help” in Italian) in Italian art history going back to the 13 th century.

Though working figuratively, Bonaiuto has not used live models since studying life drawing and anatomy in school. “I have my third eye, the intense vision that I have in my mind,” he said. “A model would distract.” And since the vision dictates itself, he is sometimes surprised at the result. “Why that’s Mama,” an older brother said upon seeing the Virgin Mary figure in the Vatican’s Holy Family sculpture. And sure enough, it was.

Bonaiuto’s studio in Italy is in rural Bagnacavello, near Faenza. His temporary studio in Cleveland (found for him by singer Providence Hollender who sang opposite him in “Desert Song” at Cleveland Opera in the 1960s) has been in the old Murray Hill School complex in Little Italy. “To think that I wound up in Little Italy,” he said. My mother and father lived across the street from her when they were married.

Another old show-biz friend her, David Frazier, introduced Bonaiuto to the Lawrence Sieglers in Cleveland heights, where he has been a house guest in a wonderfully congenial arts setting. And to another delightful coincidence, he discovered that Cleveland’s California Ceramics supply co. where his sculptures are being fired, is the family business of cousins Geraldine Toarmina Divoky and Gary Divoky, who also are artists.