London – The exhibition Arturo Di Stefano. Italian Paintings will open on October 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Institute in London, celebrating the enduring connection between British painter Arturo Di Stefano and Italy. The exhibition draws on the memories, places and encounters that have shaped his artistic vision. Born in Yorkshire in 1955 to Italian parents who had moved to the United Kingdom for work, Di Stefano studied in Liverpool and London before living and working in Turin for a year on an Italian government scholarship. He later said that his time in Turin made him the painter he is today. The artist’s ties to Italy are also deeply intellectual. His choice of Turin was influenced as much by the city’s writers – he has painted portraits of Cesare Pavese and Primo Levi – as by its arcades, monuments and art. The Shroud of Turin, in particular, has remained a constant source of inspiration: a foundational image of portraiture, the trace of a real person and an image of Christ himself. Cultural figures have been a recurring subject in his work, as have the London houses where poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine and painter Vincent van Gogh lived for brief periods. Alongside places, Di Stefano has portrayed friends and fellow artists, including philosopher Yehuda Safran, graphic design historian Richard Hollis and painter Tony Eyton. The choice of Italian subjects in Di Stefano’s work may not always be immediately apparent, but these images clearly carry a poetic and historical significance for the artist. His 2003 painting Villa San Giovanni, for example, depicts the port from which his father is believed to have set sail after the war on the long journey toward a new life in northern England. Other subjects appear to have been selected for the artistic challenge they present, such as the white plastic chairs in Open Air Cinema, Orvieto (2016–17). Open to the public through November 13, the exhibition is Di Stefano’s way of expressing his gratitude to Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in London for the decisive support he received at the beginning of his career. (9colonne)