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Guidi did not like to talk about himself, his art and art in general, of which he posessed a profound knowledge after his traditional education, visiting museums and art galleries around the world, studying art books and using and inventing various techniques. Even so, he could not bear critics’ or artists’ long speeches. He often firmly stated:
“If one paints or sculpts it is precisely because words only cannot express everything. If a work of art needs too much explaning, it means that it was a waste of effort. It is not necessary to be an experienced art lover to appreciate a work of art: art is not restricted to an elite, it is for everybody. Art touches the hearts, the senses.”
I thought I was able to write about Guidi and his work because the time that has elapsed since his death (more than 10 years) gave the necessary distance to his work and to my relationship to the man and artist he was.
As muse, impresario and companion I know a lot about him, but obviously not everything (we all have our secrets) and as to his past I may have omitted certain events, I may even have made mistakes; I am quite ready to add or amend.
I try to be as sincere and objective as possible both as to my involvement in his life as to his work, without necessarily concealing my esteem which has remained intact after his departure, even tough my own life as a woman and artist may have taken a different flight of fancy.
As far as the dates are concerned, Guidi has done everything to cloud the issues, he did not want to add a date to his signature for esthatics and because, above all, he lived in the present time. The reason for numerous difficulties for my research.
Guidi and Annie Jeanneret in Fillerval in 1981 ( Photo Maurice Lababsa )
Guidi with the pigeons in front of the ‘Procuratie’, Place Saint-Marc (Venise, 1984) Self-portait of Guidi In the year of 1970
