‘This prestigious exhibition is dedicated to the Sicilian artist who died recently and is an exceptional occasion to discover the littler known Guttuso. 49 works are presented which were painted by Renato Guttuso between 1938 and 1985. Amongst others we see studies for the fresco “Flight to Egypt”, painted in 1983 at the Sacro monte in Varese, and those for the “Crucifixion” of 1941, a painting about which Guttuso said: “My painting certainly does not agree with the canons of religious iconography, but this does not make it any less religious”. “The two dramas in which Guttuso vigorously expressed his social and spiritual tension are present in the works exhibited in Rimini. These works, which are little known or indeed unknown to most people, are realised with various techniques, including oil, pastels, ink, watercolours and litography ” writes Alberico Sala in the catalogue of the exhibition. Particularly valuable are, amongst others, some oils on wide canvasses, such as the “Supper at Emmaus”, the “Wood of the cross” and “St Gerolamus”. The exhibition also presents various studies and meditations on the works by Antonello, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Grunewald, Raffaello. Guttuso picks up their suggestions – notes Alberico Sala – with a restless feeling of sacrality: “The religious roots ” concludes the critic “had always remained green in Guttuso (…). It is a heritage of sensitiveness which will not become delapidated and which will from time to time leave an imprint on his work, despite Guttuso’s secular outlook “.’