Gianni Ruffi

Gianni Ruffi (Firenze, 1938 – )

In the Seventies, the School of Pistoia — through the Pop art of Roberto Barni, Umberto Buscioni, Adolfo Natalini, and Gianni Ruffi – brought artistic innovation to the area where the Fattoria di Celle is located. In 1982, Giuliano Gori includedRuffi among the first artists to carry out a site specific piece on the top floor of the Villa. The artist occupied a small, almost cubic room with a very blue ceiling framed by floral decorations dating back to the late nineteenth century. A large window opens to the south, overlooking the Italian garden below. The artist takes the rural and natural features as a suggestion to focus on natural, even universal, presences: he decides to capture the Sun and the Moon insidehis room.

Ruffi began the work by constructing a rough wooden platform that occupies most of the room’s floor space and is a base for his contraption. With the ironic language that characterizes his work, he creates a common country mouse-trap, enlarged to three meters in height in order to accommodate the celestial bodies. After completing the initial carpentry, the artist went on to bend six iron bars to mount the trap structure and create an opening at its apex. The trap is closed off by several horizontal bars, which allowa good view of the interior where the visitor can verify the confinement of the yellow slice of the moon, which descends from the mouth of the trap to rest on the floor, as well as the uncontainable orange rays of the sun, which curl outwards as if seeking an escape route.

“The nearby city of Pistoia is represented by Gianni Ruffi, an artist who well documents the passage between a Pop Art situation, intent on celebrating consumer objects, the stereotyped images of our time, and a more open and dynamic situation that is directed instead towards visualizing subtle and arduous mental processes.” — R. Barilli, “A Perfect Harmony Between Interior and Exterior: The Presence of Italian Artists in the Fattoria di Celle” in *Arte Ambientale*, Umberto Allemandi& Co., Torino, 1993, p.16.

Works by the artist

Sun and Moon Captured at Celle

For more info:

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