Artist Girotto’s neoclassical work celebrated at LVAM

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 | 8:18 a.m.

At a young age he gave up his studies in nuclear physics to focus on art and explore his interest in religion, metaphysics and philosophy subjects he incorporates into his oil paintings.

But do an Internet search on the artist's name and suggestive images of women appear on pinup and erotica websites. Even the cover of his book, "The Art of Walter Girotto," (SQP, 2002) flashes the bare and exaggerated bosom of a centerfold-like woman with seductive eyes and pouty lips.

Essentially, when Girotto's fame as an artist began to build, it wasn't from his blend of contemporary and classical paintings and drawings projecting deep themes. It was from the pinup artwork Girotto began creating nearly 10 years ago.

But this weekend Girotto's neoclassical artwork will be in the spotlight when his solo exhibit, "Walter Girotto: Vanitas," opens Saturday at Las Vegas Art Museum. Coordinated by Jerry Facciani, a longtime collector of Girotto's work and LVAM board member since January, the exhibit will feature more than 75 oil-on-wood paintings, nine drawings and 16 giclees. None of Girotto's erotic paintings will be featured.

The exhibit is drawn from Girotto's own collection and collections throughout the West, including work from the Tamara Bane Gallery in Los Angeles, which until recently handled Girotto's art.

Girotto will be in Las Vegas for this weekend's opening receptions at the museum, 9600 W. Sahara Ave.

In a recent interview via telephone, Girotto said he would prefer to have both styles represented in the exhibit, but understands the museum's decision not to include his erotic work because schoolchildren visit the museum.

Besides, he explained, the exhibit is an opportunity for him to showcase the work he's more deeply connected to.

"I've spent most of my life trying to be a serious artist and be serious in my education, to translate important messages," the humble 50-year-old Girotto said from his home in Villadose, Italy.

"Doing this, I've only been able to reach a few collectors. Since I began to paint erotic, thousand of thousands of people know me," he said. "It's the way that I'm getting famous that depresses me. Pinups, it's not my style ... When I realized it was too much for me, I stopped."

Born in 1953 in Rovigo, Italy, Girotto began drawing at an early age. His first experience with art, he said, occurred at age 3 when he drew a picture of a whale at a nursery he attended. The teacher, so impressed with the picture, paraded it before Girotto's classmates.

The experience, Girotto said, "Determined my destiny. I started drawing daily from then. I never stopped."

Using bright colors, angelic figures and dark, dramatic and spiritual imagery, Girotti blends contemporary and classical styles to convey his philosophical musings.

In "Stendhal's Syndrome," he takes the image of the archangel Michael murdering Satan in Guido Reni's "St. Michael Archangel" and incorporates it with his own painting to represent social unease in a modern society overwhelmed by negative societal messages.

Other oil-on-wood paintings incorporate warriors, ballet dancers, doves and souls with arms extended toward heaven.

"Kant, Plato, Augustine and Kierkegaard, all these are my teachers," Girotto said in a thick Italian accent, apologizing for not knowing more English.

"Sometimes I'd like to paint flowers or a landscape. But I like to say something. Sometimes it is too much."

Perhaps his erotica was a reprieve. After exhibiting his paintings throughout Italy, Girotto participated in an art expo in New York City, where he met a representative from the Tamara Bane Gallery, an online offshoot of Robert Bane Editions, a company known for its pinup, erotic and fantasy art.

In 1996, Girotto began painting erotic works.

"I had always been painting nudity or nudes, but they were in a context in neoclassic," Girotto said. Eventually the nudes were a more illustrated type of poster art.

"I published on my website some nudity," Girotto said. "People asked to use it for personal website. It has been like a chain. Everybody forwarded it. In a few months I found myself on thousands of websites.

"Publishers ask me to do books of erotic art. If I want a book done about my neoclassical art, I have to pay. But if I want a book of erotic art, they pay me. Isn't that strange?"

Facciani said he's a fan of both styles.

When a collector Facciani was working with sent photos of Girotto's paintings, Facciani flew out to Los Angeles to see the work.

"I loved his work," Facciani said. "It was like I was smitten. He's got an enormous array of neoclassical themes. He fuses mythology, the classics and literature into his themes."