I have followed the work of Lucatello ever since its beginning, which was 20 years ago in fact. I witnessed its birth, watched it grow and saw it blossom to maturity. It is now 1967 and obviously time moves on and Lucatello has moved with it.
If on the occasion of this extensive exhibition in Udine I were to allow my paternal instinct towards my young friend to hold sway, I would be forgiven by all but the man himself. Lucatello insists that his work be judged and valued as it stands and be weighed on its merits alone.
Although I am reluctant to do so, I accept my role and thus become the “scales” and the judge.
Lucatello has a truly distinct and unmistakable artistic temperament and this has dominated his work from the outset. Even his very first creative pieces of 20 years ago demonstrate this. He has never taken his cue from others, never succumbed to their demands, never capitulated to pressure of any kind. This is not out of pride or arrogance but stems from his desire to be totally sincere, with himself and with others. His work is consistently suffused with a harmony and profound humility and this has been irrespective of changes in artistic taste (including his own), or the swings, whims and bizarre fads of fashion.
A close analysis of his work reveals a constant and very personal inspiration, or rather a firm and resolute perspective of reality, and this is what makes his work so stimulating. . Lucatello has never ceased to investigate the world around him, the world of which he feels very much a part. His work is an exploration of human reality and more importantly, the reality which lies within nature itself, in all its manifestations: waterways, mountains, plains, trees, rocks. What is the truth which lies behind these mysterious entities, what are the laws which determine these apparently casual realities?
As Gérard de Nerval once said, recalling an ancient Pythagorean quote: “A la matière même un verbe est attaché.../ Souvent dans l’être obscur habite un Dieu caché” (Even dumb matter is imbued with voice.../The most obscure of beings may house a hidden god). Well, the way I see it is that Lucatello has always been and always will be eager to listen, to capture that voice. He has sought and will always endeavour to seek, the radiant face of God within the obscure forms of matter.
We are not dealing here with realism, and surrealism even less so. These terms, as commonly perceived, cannot be applied to Lucatello. His work has a sense of mystique -perhaps unconscious – of religious aspiration. This can be witnessed in his constant endeavour to confront and engage with matter. It is through this confrontation and impact that he is able to imbue matter with a distinct spiritual significance and poetic soul.
I suppose we should say something here of the artistic skills and techniques that Lucatello possesses and uses. But quite honestly I think we can say that the evidence speaks for itself. Lucatello was clearly born to be an artist, a painter, and his hand, his imagination and his heart are those of a painter. The brushstrokes, the “splodges”, the texture and colours of the paint itself: these are his hallmark. What else is there to say?

translated by Amanda M. Hunter