Alessandro ‘Sandro’ Simeoni was born in Ferrara, Italy in
1928, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts and at a young age he began
working with some local newspapers as a cartoonist.
He moved to Rome in the early 1950s where he began his
work as a poster designer collaborating with major film companies, both
American and Italian: Paramount, Warner Bros, Columbia, CEI Incom, Cineriz,
PEA, Titanus, etc.
His activity was very prolific and in nearly 40 years has
been produced about 2800 sketches for posters.
The technique of the teacher is to focus mainly on the
color, the representation of an idea that catches attention, rather than the
portrait of the protagonist; in what proves to be a very versatile artist
touching with the originality of all film genres: creates fancy pictures and
disturbing horror movies such as The Black Sleep of Dr. Satan , Panic etc,
using soft colors and delicate forrms for comedies such as An American wife,
transgression and eroticism in the images of erotic films such as Beyond Eden,
for western designs shootings and gunmen in action are often shown with respect
to the poster A Fistful of Dollars. Says Simeoni, "It took a lot of effort
to convince the client to create a poster without horses [the director, loves
the design of these animals of which there is virtually no trace in my
sketches, ed"; some pictures, which were so fond of Pasolini, then are
almost futuristic. Speaking of Pasolini
Simeoni said: "... there was a friendship between us. The Canterbury Tales
is the best manifesto that I did for him. By the way the manifesto was
kidnapped for three bare-breasted women, and for two behinds, but there are two
scenes of which no one noticed, thanks to the way in which I painted: a woman with
a man masturbating and another that is taken from behind by another man".
That is an element that has characterized the artistic
life of Simeoni: the relationship with Censorship! This relationship has always been special, an
endless game of "cops and robbers";
the guards, the censors, seize and condemn; the thief, the painter, using his skills to
work around them: "I could play with some of the censorship people"
declared Simeoni. We cite a few movie titles whose poster was censored or has
been a source of challenge between the Master and the Censors: The Battle of
Algiers, To Each His Own, La calda preda, The Canterbury Tales, L’affare della
sezione speciale, Joe Hill, The Antichrist, Inghilterra nuda, Deep Throat [See
the album “Le mutande della censura”, ed].
The sequence as shown pictures is chronological; This
allows you to follow the evolution of the painting technique and representative
of Simeoni, his first works, from the early 1950s, to his later achievements in
the late 1980s. A change is evident: the
design becomes less affected and the sketch loses details and colors; figures
become more essential, stylized. In some
designs dominated by white; in others, the artist uses strong colors, such as
yellow or red, on the faces of the characters or background scenes to emphasize
the tragedy or violent content of the film that the poster wants to advertise.
A unique element of the Simeoni paintings are the women,
especially when it assumes a significant impact in the manifest. In the drawing
of a woman Simeoni pursues his own standard of beauty; the facial features are
those of the actress that the artist intends to portray, but the proportions of
the body are those of the ideal feminine figure is slender, nor excessive, but
pleasantly rounded; is a woman who in some ways is reminiscent of the female
representations of our Renaissance painters. This feature is a signature that
allows, by itself, to give the Master the paternity of a painting.
It is said (truth or fiction?) That Simeoni was inspired,
in depicting these women, by his wife that he was so in love with.
To return to the female figures in his more recent
projects are designed with a few strokes, almost only the outline of the body,
sometimes on a background almost nonexistent (...... Le calde amicizie, Male
d'amore, Il corpo di Diana, Nel paradiso del piacere), but also in this case
while maintaining the characteristics of "roundness" and beauty. Women
drawn from Simeoni often give off a strong sensuality; this effect, certainly due to the ideal of
feminine beauty of the master, is often accentuated by a particular coquetry,
which portrays Simeoni His women: a suspender dress sagging down, casually,
down the arm! E 'is the recurring theme
that we can observe in the collection "Details of Women".
Another element of the Simeoni paintings: the characters
are often drawn overflowing, spewing from the box that encloses the scene; the
surface of the poster seems to be insufficient to contain them, and what gives
the feeling about these "and opening" literally from the
painting; This effect is sometimes
achieved through a strong perspective with which they are painted characters:
an arm thrust forward, a gun designed to be pointed at the viewer... This
feature is particularly evident in some designs [...Rapporto sulle esperienze
sessuali di tre ragazze] is relevant to the painting technique in countless
works of the master: La morte cammina con i tacchi alti, 3 dritti a Saint Tropez, Permette? Rocco Papaleo, etc.
The posters shown in the album bearing the signature
"Symeoni", with some exceptions due to reasons, mostly
typography. The use of the 'y' is
explained by the teacher in an interview: "After the poster of ''L'uomo
che non sapeva amare', which was used worldwide, Paramount called me often and
reading my name in English Saimeoni called me. Eventually I got tired of
mispronunciation and decided to replace the 'i' with a 'y' for the Americans
Simeoni [the film quoted by Simeoni in his interview of 1964, but prior to that
the posters date reported signing with the y ....., ed]. "
Alessandro Simeoni died in Rome in 2007.
Some interesting facts:
The master Simeoni
has sometimes given in to temptation, drawing some sketches, that resort to
images or graphic compositions he previously produced. It’s 'interesting to see comparisons between
certain pairs of accomplishments:
"Every nudity
is forbidden" (1973) and "Sciopen" (1983)
"Soldiers and
hippies" (1967) and "Three straight to Saint Tropez" (1971)
"Excuse me,
do you know the gender?" (1967) and "In the paradise of
pleasure" (1970)
"Panic"
(1961) and "Dreamscape" (1983)
"Beyond
Eden" (1970) and "Emanuelle, because violence against
women?" (1977)
YouTube interview:
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