Pozzallo, 16 April 1922 - Bologna 16 September 2003

The prof. Carmelo Pluchinotta represented the irreverent painter of the 20th century for several decades. A man of education and vast culture, refined trainer of various generations of the newly established middle school of Pozzallo, he represents the creator of the Pozzallo pictorial school together with Rodolfo Cristina.

Thanks to his pictorial work, other masters developed, including Giovanni Lucenti, who represented the local historical continuity in this art: from the Assenza brothers, court painters, to Cristina, Pluchinotta, to today's Sansone, Barrera and a thousand others.

Carmelo Pluchinotta, among the founders of the spoken newspaper "Arà", unanimously considered the instrument of political formation of the left of Pozzallo, was certainly monothematic.

His works represent priests, bishops, cardinals, domes, all critical images towards a temporal power now outside of history and time. Yet images are never offensive, never excessive or expressions of mockery.

The reference to the spirituality of the Church was a constant, and was appreciated throughout Italy and certainly in Sicily and Pozzallo. In fact, popular sentiment has been and is very strong in Pozzallo, so much so that in every house in Pozzallo there is no shortage of a painting by Meno Pluchinotta, acclaimed and recognized as a master of critical painting by all the people.

His works are still appreciated today in the national catalogs of 20th century painters, of which they represent stylistically and contentively a critical moment of importance and opposition to post-war Catholic conformism; this criticism led, not surprisingly, to the innovative results of the Second Vatican Council, called by John XXIII, promoter of a Church without temporal power and without the trappings of the past. For all this Carmelo Pluchinotta is an artist of national level.

He has held solo exhibitions in New York (Greenwich Lillage and Soha), Long Island University (Brooklyn), Center Art Gallery (New York), Mary Moore Gallery (La Jolla, California), Bay Harbor Galleries (Miami, Florida), Galleria Montenapoleone (Milan), Galleria Portichetto (Rho), Galleria Roda (Rovigo), Svengoli Gallery (Bari), Galleria l'Incontro (Taranto), Cabrera (Pozzallo).

One of his paintings is located at the International Museum of Humor (Toronto). Other permanent works are found in the Masin Gallery (Florence) and the Etruria Gallery (Andria).

This is what Leo Strozzeri wrote about him: "The insistence of the ecclesiastical theme in most of Pluchinotta's paintings is a clear sign of his attachment, albeit critical, to the Church. The priests who populate his works do not have so much a decorative function, but an ideal one. He hopes that they will wake up from sleep, leaving the devil to their fate and actually propose themselves to the service of their brothers. And if they want to be interested in theology, they should know that a theology of revolution is also legitimate."

Source: Hon. Prof. Attilio Sigona; Brochure “Palazzo Musso, Art Gallery”, year 2001.