Some galleries base their reputation on showcasing a stable of artists that all belong to the same group, either age or style. It is a safe bet, as your collectors feel secure in knowing that you will only have bankable artists, those who are called 'career' artists with a proven track record. In Italy, there is an elite group of artists who are generally aged over 50 and to Italian collectors, are household names. Who collects them outside of Italy, is another matter. But they regularly show up at the Venice Biennale and are invited to museum group exhibitions in the art capitals New  York, London, Paris and Berlin.

Take Carla Accardi for example, born in 1924 she has been famous in Italy since 1947 when she founded the group of abstract painters called "Forma". If anyone deserves international fame on a Schnabel, Marden scale - it is her. Still, most Italian artists prefer to live in Italy (and quite rightly) so this limits their audience. However there are more Italian born artists at the top end of the international scale than there are French artists today - Sandro Chia (born Florence, 1946) and Francesco Clemente (born Rome, 1952 ) among them. To get there, these artists have joined the throng and live largely in New York.
 

Accardi is a good friend of Santo Ficara a maverick player in the contemporary art world from Calabria who has owned the top Florentine gallery for over 30 years. Ficara regularly makes trips to Accardi's Roman studio and selects easel paintings to show in his gallery and at the annual round of art fairs across the country. Accardi is one of the enduring Italian stars he cultivates a strong working relationship with, another is Aldo Mondino (see article). Ficara is known for his Italian masters and last year he sold a major work by Sandro Chia (below). 
 

However this Calabrese is canny enough to realize any gallery has to move forward at the risk of becoming stale like so many stuffy  London and New  York galleries. He has nurtured an innovative group of Italian artists who call themselves Cracking Art and who have just been invited to show at the next Venice Biennale.  Now, he has taken the brave and un-Italian step of showing a French artist, albeit one who lives in Florence. In his current show "Artists of the Gallery" which Ficara does every year, the viewer walks into the elegant renaissance space with wall to wall classics from his coterie of living Italian masters but what stands out, what hits you in the eye and draws you like a magnet - are two fresh works by Le Goff. Called Firenze 15 Rosso and Firenze 15 Blu these vibrant pieces from an outsider are flanked by works from Mondino and Accardi. It makes for a startling contrast. I interviewed half a dozen visitors to the gallery and they all raved about the Frenchman's work, saying that the rest was "as you would expect."
 

Injecting new blood into the stable is a risk. Florentine collectors are few and staunchly conservative. Ficara has already shown works by Le Goff in two previous group shows and this year, at the all important Bologna Fiera. The public's reaction to the exciting works in the current show, is proving his instincts were correct. Ficara will stage a major one man show for Le Goff in November of this year. The exhibition will include paintings, drawings, sculpture and Le Goff's latest work with gold panels and computer parts. Le Goff's 'goldscapes' deal with, amongst other things, eastern mysticism and mathematical conundrums. By incorporating computer parts, he investigates the extent to which hi-tech hardware has infiltrated our lives and explores the impact of the information age upon European culture.
 
 

ARTISTS OF THE GALLERY ACCARDI - BOETTI - CARMI - CABERLON - CHIA - CHIARI - CRACKING ART  - DE PARIS - GILARDI  LE  GOFF - KASTELIC - ONTANI - SALVO -  STEFANONI - TURCATO - ROTELLA - MONDINO Santo Ficara, Via Ghibellina,16r, Florence 50122, Italy Tel. 055/2340239 open Mon-Sat.