D’Artagnan Show in Amsterdam, June 4-10

A large part of the ICBIE’s financial support has come from the paintings of Ele D’Artagnan, the eccentric artist who befriended Pietro from earliest childhood. Pietro inherited all his works when the maestro died in 1987, and since then, he has worked to establish a posthumous reputation for him, as a precious testimonial of the Dolce Vita days of Cinecittà . The success of Pietro’s campaign culminated in the famous New York showing in 2003, when the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) grabbed a handful of the best paintings, causing their market value to skyrocket (and our ICBIE dreams to materialize).

In a few days, the most important showing of D’Artagnan art works ever held in Europe will take place in Amsterdam, thanks to the efforts of a wonderful lady named Ella Arps, who Pietro met in Salvador, where she was seeking to help the Alagados, the awful favelas built on stilts over the bay, about a mile away from the ICBIE. Their encounter began ICBIE’s rapport with the venerable capoeira master, Mestre Pedro, and led to Ella’s passion for D’Artagnan.

The Amsterdam show will be a week long festival held in various venues, under the august auspices of the Italian Cultural Institute, where, on June 7, Pietro Gallina will give a lecture, presenting his biography Ai margini della dolce vita: Il pittore/attore Ele D’Artagnan. The evening will also include the projection of D’Artagnan filmclips and a live concert dedicated to Nino Rota, Fellini’s musical alter-ego. On June 10, the Film Museum of the Vondelpark will show more D’Artagnan filmclips, together with integral projections of both Amarcord and the amazing short film Toby Dammit.

The Arps Gallery website has all the information about the exhibit in English. Just go to www.arpsgallery.com, and remember to tell your art-loving friends.

Complete information (in Italian) from the Italian Institute of Culture can be found here.

By the way, Pietro’s biography is also, rightly, the first book to be published by the newborn ICBIE Editore. (Beware of ICBIE’s omnipresent conglomerate tentacles!)