Pozzallo 25 February 1924 - Pozzallo 23 April 1979

From early childhood he showed a great inclination for drawing and painting: the extraordinary artistic vocation that would later mark his life was evident in him.

He attended the Art School of Syracuse to learn the scientific foundations which he would then have the opportunity to refine at the Art Institute of Florence, notoriously a hotbed of good artists, where he was able to admire and study works offered to the world in the prestigious halls of the various galleries.

The study of painting through masterpieces of inestimable value was a dream that had accompanied him since childhood: this great desire, among other things, took him to Milan where, at the Brera Academy, he was able to follow with extreme interest the courses of Carlo Carrà, one of the greatest Italian painters of the twentieth century, who immediately trusted him, convinced of the success of the young student.

And Milan was undoubtedly an important stage in his work, which offered him the opportunity to operate in the city and outside. That was a period of conquests and new knowledge, some of which were truly important: he met and frequented brilliant artists whose beneficial influences he felt. Not only of Carlo Carrà, but also of Mario Mafai, founder of the Roman School of Painting, of the painter Filippo De Pisis and even of Giorgio De Chirico, creator of metaphysical painting. Appreciated art critics, such as Henry Lee Bimm, or writers such as the poet Dario Bellezza, understood and praised his art.

In fact, for Rodolfo Cristina the moment of confrontation had come, which pushed him to enter the artistic arena to face the judgment of critics, to get noticed, to gain visibility.

It is also true, however, that in the 1940s he had already begun to participate in the first "Painting Exhibitions", in which he had obtained the comfort of good reviews: as for the "Michetti National Exhibition" in 1947, in which he deserved the first prize, and so for the IV Contemporary Art Exhibition, organized in Ravenna in 1948. Having completed his academic courses in the meantime, in 1947 he obtained his teaching qualification. In 1952 he took part in the III National Prize of Acitrezza, which was followed, in 1953, by the X Exhibition of Figurative Arts in Rome and that of the Art of Southern Italy.

The title obtained at the Academy of Fine Arts had meanwhile allowed him to obtain a salary to support his family, eventually teaching Drawing and History of Art at the Teachers' Institute of Modica, where he met and frequented Don Fallesi, a religion teacher. This fraternal friendship with the priest from Modica opened Rodolfo, a non-believer and member of the Italian Communist Party, to sacred art, leading him to restore altarpieces in various churches in the Diocese of Noto, particularly in the Church of the Rosary of Modica where he painted, among other things, the "Mystical Wedding of Saint Catherine", the "Crucifixion" and the "Christ Pantocrator".

He continued to participate in exhibitions of a certain importance, such as "The Masters of Via Margutta", the III and IV "Rassegna d'Arte del Lazio" in Rome, and held several permanent exhibitions in Rome, Naples and Padua, presenting works that were even purchased by the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. Despite these commitments, he was present at the I and II Exhibition of Sacred Art, held in Modica in 1966, leaving in Pozzallo, in 1979, the portrait of his most illustrious son, Giorgio La Pira, exhibited in the town hall and donating the painting "Boy" to the town library.

He died on 23 April 1979 in Pozzallo, at the age of 55.

Source:Luigi Rogasi, Pozzallesi of the 20th century, one hundred names not to be forgotten.