Italy

The beauty of Venice and Sicily captured with exquisite mastery in 22 original, exhibition-quality drawings by a leading architect

Between 1915 and 1917 the Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev wrote a series oftwenty piano pieces. While playing them for a gathering of friends, the poet Konstantin Balmont wrote a sonnet which entitled Mimolyotnosti which Kira Nikolayevna would translate as Visions fugitives.

Inspired by these dazzling miniatures, I have assembled a jewel box containing twenty individual felt-tip drawings on watercolor paper capturing fugitive visions of Italy. I have always been eager to capture the faded beauty of cities and buildings.

This obsession would inevitably draw me to Venice and Sicily. Wandering amidst the shadows of the Venetian light I have tried to portray the beauty of this luminous city. No part of Italy has as many layers of history or been inhabited by so many different peoples as Sicily.

From the Greeks who colonized Siracusa and Selinunte, to the Romans in Agrigento, to the Normans in Palermo.

About the Author

Jose A. Gelabert-Navia is a Professor and former Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Miami. A graduate of Cornell University, Jose has been part of the Faculty since 1982. His primary teaching focus has been in the areas of Architectural Design and History of Colonialism and Globalization in Architecture. He was the founder of the School's Rome Program and as part of it, he teaches a course in Italian Culture every Spring.

Prof. Gelabert-Navia has been the author of numerous articles and has also been a practicing architect, directing the Miami office of Perkins + Will. He has lectured in Europe and Latin America, most recently on the Sustainable Hospital in Brasilia and in Santiago, Chile this year.