Lucio Ranucci (1925-2017) - Bistrot du Port

Le Bistrot du Port
Lucio Ranucci (1925-2017)

Oil/Canvas 40 x 30
Perfect Condition

Signed and dated at top left
Sold framed under glass

Sold with certificate
Provenance Italian Gallery

The Artist:

Lucio Ranucci, one of the most significant representatives of the artistic current known as real cubism, was born in 1925 in Perledo, in the province of Como. His childhood and adolescence were marked by frequent moves due to his parents’ work, both doctors. While his father and his younger sister Silvia moved between the north and south of Italy, Lucio spent eight years in a boarding school in Perugia. The year 1933 brought a dramatic turning point in his life when his father, Bernardino, died. His mother decided to move to Milan with Silvia, leaving Lucio at the Perugia boarding school. The experience of separation and solitude would deeply influence his artistic journey, inspiring his future works.

At the beginning of 1943, like many young Italians of the time, Lucio Ranucci enlisted as a volunteer in the Italian army and went to North Africa. This adventure should have been a heroic experience, but it quickly turned into captivity in Tunisia, where he was captured. In January 1945, he returned to Italy as an interpreter for the Anglo-American troops. After the war, Lucio Ranucci began working as a journalist in Milan, but his thirst for knowledge and desire to explore the world drove him, in 1947, to undertake a journey to Latin America, first to Argentina. With limited means, to support himself he took on occasional jobs as a sailor, a funeral director driver, and a photographer, moving through Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Despite his frequent travels, he never abandoned his interest in painting and the cultural environment of the Latin American countries.

Lucio Ranucci maintained a constant journalistic commitment, using his art as a vehicle to denounce poverty, oppression and lack of freedom of South American populations. In 1949, he exhibited for the first time at the Galleria Marini in Lima, Peru, and from that moment began to exhibit regularly in several Latin American countries, the United States, Europe and Italy. In the 1950s, he participated in major group exhibitions, such as the Pan-American Biennial of Mexico in 1958 and the Sao Paulo Biennial, representing Costa Rica.

His style, with Cubist and Expressionist influences, reflects the sublimation of humanity, with solemn frontal figures painted with eyes devoid of pupils that express the subjects’ inner world. In 1951, Lucio Ranucci established his home for ten years in Costa Rica, where he held the position of director of the University Theater and also dedicated himself to mural painting, notably a large panel at the San José airport. His sensitivity to the dramas of people led him to actively participate in Central American political events, even being imprisoned in Managua, Nicaragua. However, Ranucci does not see himself solely as a journalist or political activist; his true passion remains art.

Over the years, he exhibited in many countries, from the Americas to Europe, earning recognition and appreciation for his ability to capture the soul of suffering humanity through his paintings.
After a period in Rome and Ischia, Lucio settled in the United States, in San Francisco, to display his works and engage with his audience of admirers. Later, he spent time in Paris and eventually settled on the French Riviera, near Vence.

Lucio Ranucci not only devoted himself to painting but also wrote three books, including Alguien camina sobre el sol (1949) and I colonnelli (1965). During his long artistic career, he exhibited in more than fifteen countries, and his works are found in public and private collections around the world. His indomitable passion for art drives him to fight for the return of art as the cradle of culture and memory and as a voice of protest against human tragedies.

Lucio Ranucci passed away in 2017, but his artistic heritage and his commitment to social denunciation remain a testament to his legacy in contemporary art. His works continue to live, carrying with them the strength of emotions and the call for social justice.

The Work:

Created in 2002, this painting by Lucio Ranucci depicts an intimate, contemplative scene of two card players in a tavern, a recurring theme in art history, revisited here with the artist’s distinctive style. At the center of the composition, two men are seated at a table, wearing traditional caps and one with a shirt, absorbed in their game lit by a hanging lamp, creating a hushed and mysterious atmosphere.

The left-hand character holds a hand of cards in which a 7 of hearts, an 8 of hearts, a jack of diamonds, and a 7 of clubs can be clearly discerned, while his partner on the right hides his cards from his gaze. On the blue table, a bottle of red wine and two footed glasses filled with a red liquid complete this tavern scene.

Ranucci’s style is characterized by a geometrization of forms and a simplification of volumes, recalling the influence of Cubism and Byzantine art. The figures have stylized and expressive faces with strong contours, and their bodies are carved by the soft light of the lamp. The color palette is dominated by cool tones of blue, green and gray, warmed by touches of ochre and burgundy, endowing the work with a melancholic and timeless atmosphere.