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Guantanamo
1 Jan 2004
Diane and Antonio Pacitti were passionately opposed to the US detention camp Guantanamo, into which prisoners were consigned without trial and subjected to humiliating conditions. They both joined the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission co-founded by Corin Redgrave to challenge this abuse of human rights. Working together in their Normandy cottage, they produced a series of drawings and poems about Guantanamo, which developed into a publication. The work drew attention and praise from several critics and writers including Harold Pinter, Andrew Lambirth, Corin Redgrave, Tony Benn and Peter Maxwell Davies.
Antonio Pacitti went on to produce drawings and monotypes depicting military occupation, displacement and loss, many inspired by the Iraq war. These works were exhibited in Glasgow and Bradford Cathedral. He was named by the Charter for Compassion in a world-wide list of artists who have contributed to our understanding of war.
Diane Pacitti has continued to explore power relationships in her poems. She also depicts enforced migration and the suffering caused by military occupation in her novel Between Two States, part of which is set in World War Two, in an Italy divided by two opposing armies.
Synopsis
Born in Cassino, Italy, the artist Antonio Pacitti (1924-2009) was an accomplished painter, sculptor, potter and amateur musician. Antonio's father Vincenzo's vociferous anti-fascist stance led to the family having to split up, leaving 2 of his siblings with an aunt, as the family hurriedly fled to Glasgow where they sought refuge in the slums of the Gorbals. Poverty had a lasting effect on the young artist whose spirit of generosity and kindness was reflected in his work depicting Christ's Passion, social inequality and injustice. Pacitti's studies at the Glasgow School of Art were interrupted by the war as he served with the Highland Light Infantry. He continued painting during his military service, painting murals and serving as an education sergeant. Attending Sir John Cass College and subsequently the Slade after the war, he became friends with significant artists, including Craigie Aitchison who was quoted as saying that no one else painted with "so much love, brightness and enthusiasm". Achieving recognition and awards over his career, in his later years Pacitti was inspired by Christ's Passion and the condition of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. In 2003 he painted a series of drawings depicting those detainees which he subsequently published with poems by his second wife Diane as the book at hand "Guantanamo". The work drew the attention of several critics and writers including Harold Pinter, Andrew Lambirth, Colin Redgrave, Tony Bern and Peter Maxwell Davies.
