Orpheus’s Song in the Dauntless River Ebro

Acrylic on Canvas

Orpheus dies, torn apart by the women of the Ciconi. It is said that his head continued to sing after being separated from his body and thrown into the river Ebro.

These canvases were born from a collaboration between the Canadian sculptor, Richard Tosczak, and an Italian artist who is a lover of literature and linguistics, Angela Letizia Renzi.

The collaboration, which has its beginnings in the picturesque setting of lake Como, continues, more productive than ever, on an island in the heart of the Mediterranean animated by the tide, the motion of the waves, the active volcano Etna and tales of local mythology. Their canvases have a dialogic character which comes to life via an effective conversation between the simultaneous action of the two authors. The philosophical artistic formation of one and the literary humanistic of the other, are intertwined in a common vocabulary, a visual language of colour, gesture and form:

‘this is our lexicon, our morphosyntax, the grammar of our language.’ 

- Richard Tosczak and Angela Letizia Renzi