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He obtains a post, based on qualifications,
at the Institute of Art in Udine, and moves with his family to Tarcento.
Within him the brooding bitterness of separation, and undoubtedly
the obsessive role of one who feels rejected was growing bigger in
his mind . In Venice he was to keep more friends and admirers that
he was prepared to admit. The gallery Il Traghetto never refused him
a one–man show. Diego Valeri, then the President of Bevilacqua
La Masa, not only encouraged him to hold exhibitions in the rooms
of the foundation, but would speak with affection and conviction at
his exhibitions in Friuli. And many others. The only absentees, with
a few precious exceptions, were the critics of his area.
But Lucatello was to fall in love with Friuli, this peripheral land
still so little understood, tthis jewel almost excluded from the great
itineraries of holidaymakers. On his moped – he was to pass his
driving test only at the age of fifty – he becomes drunk with
emotion riding for hours and hours along the dusty roads which stretch
over wooded hills, discovers with amazement and joy the architecture
of an intense green, that was sober, dry and essential, and then goes
down to discover the incredible lights of the pebbly river Tagliamento.
Of a sociable nature, always ready to crack a joke, he soon makes
friends with the paesants he meets in the taverns, or when he goes
to drink red wine in the shady osterie deep in the country. Not only
are these casual encounters, but with many of them he establishes
relationships that are to last for ever.
He plays bowls with them, but above all billiards, and takes part
in tournaments, or he plays cards or chats about politics. They accept
him without reservations, these Friuli people who usually are rather
reticent with strangers, and they even confide in him. They tell him
difficult stories in front of a glass, often told in a poetic vein,
always with the irony of one who of life has felt the heavy hand.
For him they are all part of this land of Friuli, that he is learning
to know better and better, and the relationship man–nature is
taking clearer shape in his bright landscapes. He has a studio in
Billerio, a wonderful hill, drastically alien to the fetters of town. |
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