Federica Galli has always devoted considerable attention to the publication of thematic volumes, including those on travel. Small and precious, they are characterised by their refined style. The volume on the Marche region, engraved in 1960, includes twelve small etchings of various sizes and a text by Gianni Testori.
Print run: 60.
Images of the twelve etchings are available on request.
"Like cupboards in houses we haven't visited for a long time, or like ancient treasure chests we happen to stumble upon, artists' studios, even those of the artists we know and visit most often, never cease to surprise us; and the more we know and visit them, the more passionate and continuous our knowledge and visits are, the more these surprises delight us.
Who could have imagined, after Sala had gone through Federica Galli's catalogue, which we ourselves had, so to speak, taken up and continued, that her drawers, or rather her chest of drawers, as white as the sheets of paper lying there, ready to receive the mastery of her marks, could still contain unknown wonders? Hidden out of excessive modesty or, perhaps, because they were considered too private, a series of small engravings emerged, no larger than a business card or a postcard.
But divided into groups, as they are, they form the long, intimate diary of a real Journey through Italy.
Now, what better way to celebrate the Ginestra d'oro than by opening the first chapter of that journey? It concerns, of course, the Marche region.
But the tribute does not repay the tribute paid to it with the award; it precedes it, thus further guaranteeing the correctness of the choice. And it establishes a correspondence of love for a land and a sea.
Brief as annotations, these trembling yet steady plates seem like notes that Galli's burin sends to someone she loves; to bear witness to the beauties she encounters, before which she pauses, so that her thin yet tenacious and exact tip can inscribe, first on the plate, then on the white of the sheets, her rich inventions and graphic solutions; which, because they are attached to reality, are no less free. Indeed, it seems that the stronger the attachment is, the more Galli's burin finds, invents and even imagines the lines, dots, intersections, overlaps and, in short, the greys and blacks; sometimes cold, sometimes very warm, sometimes soft, sometimes caressed, sometimes affirmed and reaffirmed. Those familiar with Galli's entire body of work will find unexpected secret papers here; which, precisely because they are hidden, help to reveal to us, with the persuasiveness of letters or postcards sent to us by those we love, the warmest and deepest intimacy of her art; and, most importantly, the sources from which springs what forms the source of her art and her teaching: the sweet and eternal music of nature."
–text by Giovanni Testori for Viaggio in Italia n. 1 Le Marche, La Compagnia del Disegno, Milano 1981