Salvatore Zofrea

Salvatore Zofrea works in the tradition of the artist as a storyteller.

He studied at the Julian Ashton school for five years, from the age of 14, yet his imagery and style is steeped in his Italian background. He was nine when he arrived in Australia with his mother and two sisters in 1956. His father had already migrated in 1947, from Calabria.

The Months of the Year follows Zofrea's fascination with the process of a continuous narrative.

In previous suites the story of displacement through migration is the underlying theme. In An Odyssey Zofrea relates the journey of his parents, particularly that of his father; in some of the images the artist is an onlooker. For the Capricornia Suite, his relatives' experiences in the Queensland canefields are documented in vigorous woodcuts.

Months of the Year, unlike much of Zofrea's work, is almost devoid of people. The imagery evokes a young country boy's memories of the Italian countryside:

meadows and fields overgrown, with a profusion of plants and trees, and flowers bursting into bloom willy nilly.

The finely drawn etchings are printed in a brown ink, reflecting the colour of the land. These prints celebrate and pay homage to the bounty of the earth and to life itself.

June from Months of the year
1984 Griffith Studio and Graphic Workshop, Sydney
etching on paper

Gift of Pamela Griffith 1993 93.1112