ART DEALER - FRANCESCO RUTELLI

FRANCESCO RUTELLI (1954 - )

For many years Giorgio Quintini either worked for other art gallery owners or he ran one for silent partners. Let it be said here that Giorgio, who had quite remarkable social skills, who, as a minor practitioner was interested in modern art and had an enviable memory, was the perfect front man for any gallery; he remembered, recognised and flattered those who might buy and he could persuade artists of the advantages of their showing with him. Specialising in contemporary art, generally of a figurative kind, for years he was a fixture at the "Studio Due" in Vicolo Sforza-Cesarini in Rome where his openings brought together many younger and older people on the fringes of the artistic and theatrical world of the capital.

A young Francesco Rutelli

One of the young men who wanted to make a name for himself in Rome was the good-looking and pleasantly mannered great grandson of a well-known Sicilian sculptor, Mario Rutelli. Francesco Rutelli would go on to join the aptly named Radical Party, which he was to lead when he was only 26. Later he became Mayor of Rome for two terms, and he moved from being a member of an almost 'hippy' party, to a pillar of a right wing, pro-Vatican establishment party, at one point being considered for the post of Prime Minister of Italy.

At the time he was taken up by Giorgio Quintini he was 19 years old and Giorgio tells his artistic story in this note written for the purchaser of the collage presented to him by Rutelli.

This is the work he gave to Giorgio in 1973 after his first solo exhibition, which Giorgio kept on his walls until he sold it when he moved to Ovada, where he kept a framed photocopy hanging.

"se ci fosse anche dio - pensai -ci saremmo tutti"

Collage and mixed-media, it represents the rear view of a young man, kneeling with one arm raised and is signed in pencil: F. Rutelli '73. The dedication reads: "A Giorgio, con amicizia, Francesco". The central figure of the collage was cut from an early Italian advertisement for ink.

As Giorgio writes above, Rutelli was included in the two following exhibitions by Giorgio, after which he seems to have been more interested in making his way in politics more than art, though he continued to attend exhibition openings at the Vicolo Sforza-Cesarini gallery.

The cover of the 1974 exhibition which included works by Rutelli

Giorgio's penultimate paragraph mentions Rutelli.

The cover of the 1975 exhibition marked the last professional contact they had.  

When Francesco Rutelli became mayor of Rome (1994-2001), towards the end of that period Giorgio was having to leave the flat in Via Giulia where he had lived for years. He told his friends that he had written to the Mayor for old times' sake, hoping for some help in finding another flat but that no answer had been forthcoming. It was then that he decided to sell the collage Rutelli had given to him.