Since the Le Lettere editions published «All poems» edited by Diego Bertelli in 2019, the figure of Bartolo Cattafi (Barcelona Pozzo di Gotto, 1922 – Milan, 1979) has once again become central, even if not enough, in the history of contemporary Italian poetry. Those qualities which, even with publication in the most prestigious series, had been recognized in his life reappear clearly and, in their precise literary identity, lead to new reflections and investigations. Thus Silvia Freiles from Messina, a PhD in Italian studies, who in 2016 published «The “unlimited word” by Bartolo Cattafi», manages to demonstrate to us that studies on the poet can still be a mine full of surprises thanks also to the bibliographic fund, of over a thousand volumes, which can be consulted at the Apice center of the University of Milan. He does this by using unpublished material in a new way, what critics define as “double talent”, in Cattafi’s case mainly linked to painting (as well as drawing and photography).
The reference, however, does not stop at the poet’s activity on canvas and on paper, but extends to all those coincidences – or common paths – that exist between the verses and the currents and the artists contemporary to him and beyond. The volume «Bartolo Cattafi between book of poetry and book of art» (Olschki Editore, Florence) moves along Surrealism and Futurism, Spatialism (above all), Abstractionism. It also touches on the friendship between Cattafi and another great Messina native, also a writer and painter, Beniamino Joppolo, who – we discover – exerted a certain influence in the poet’s education.
Freiles, among many things, quotes a passage from a letter by Joppolo which exalts the “spatialist” character of his younger friend: «The term poet transcends and can be applied to few. That crystal atmosphere that the gardens have with the red globes of oranges in winter circulates in your poetry, when they project themselves into the universe and reveal behind the crystal like an enchantment that has become plastic.” Freiles focuses on the “artist’s books”, an example of contacts with painters (notably Giulio D’Anna, another esteemed Messina native) and critics, who exalt the modernity of Cattafi, the forerunner of a model which in more recent years has found multiplication of interest and creations.