EMILIO GRECO MUSEUM

The city of Catania has been home since the 1990s to the Emilio Greco Museum, which the Catanese artist opened shortly before his death.

For more than two decades, the rooms, carved out of the Palazzo Gravina Cruyllas, the same as Vincenzo Bellini's birthplace, have housed many examples of his graphic production, including a wide span of time from 1955 to 1992.
Present is a series of etchings entitled " Commiati" that express and analyze the tormented moment of separation between a man and a woman.

Recurring classical quotations found in the titles: Nausicaa, Euriclea, Arethusa, Medea, Sappho, Return of Odysseus, Metamorphosis, Nymph and Faun, and the force of poetic inspiration embodied in the constant references to Catullus.

The sculptor was born in Catania in 1913 and, from an early age, was enchanted by ancient sculpture: Thus he recites in his memoirs: là, in the former Convent of San Placido, I attended elementary school and, just across the street, on the way out of school, I discovered the first artifacts of the great Greco-Roman civilization through the sturdy gratings of the first floor of Palazzo Biscari overlooking the watery mirror of the Port.

 But in Catania being an artist, at that time, was almost impossible, fine arts languished and artists had no chance to make exhibitions.

 In the turn of time, however, things have changed in Catania as well. Now there are, over there, art institutes and private galleries operate. My poignant memories of youth have always been rooted there: there in the Baroque city, where old monasteries crowd on the site that was the acropolis in the golden age of Magna Graecia.

 The sea, the scent of jasmine, the Arab chants of vendors in the sunny streets, the spicy smells of a composite cuisine, the many legacies of different civilizations: all relive with intensity and insistence in my soul.

Today the Emilio Greco Museum has found a new home, the former San Placido Convent, a place so much mentioned in the artist's memoirs, in his time the site of his elementary schools, now the Palace of Culture.