And here is one of the earlier works in the Casa Italiana show, Bread, from 1957. 20×24 inches o/c It suggests a frugal impoverished post war Italy, or else a painter’s search for something readily at hand to compose into a still life. Living in Positano with frequent trips to Rome Venice and UK in the 50s, Ruta painted many quiet down to earth still life of this sort. And then he packed them into shipping boxes and took them back to New York and forgot about them for many years. In fact the early Italian work was rediscovered after 2005 by a Positano native, Enzo Esposito, who invited Ruta to show at his Galleria Mediterraneo (see FB page) That was the beginning of a series of shows in galleries and museums in Italy and Germany of fifty, sixty year old paintings that history has tinged with charm and mystery. But why the broken bowl in this painting? Is it symbolic of the painter’s state of mind in 1957. The 50s were a difficult time for the painter.
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