“HELGA and DIEGO” by Helga Voci
Chapter 5 #Wiesbaden, #Germany. 1968 Marriage in #Denmark.
“In Spring 1965 Diego wanted to go to #Germany and we came to #Wiesbaden where he had been living for sometime with Josiane, his ex-wife. We both liked Wiesbaden, so we rented an apartment in #Sonnenbergerstrasse. It was a beautiful place, we got it for a very low price, but had made a contract for 5 years and agreed to renovate it. So for at least 6 months we were living in the middle of sand, concrete, and tiles. But at the end we had a beautiful high ceiling living-room with open fireplace, fantastic new bathroom and a beautiful Studio. We had hand-painted and gold-plated dining-room furniture which I still have today and many beautiful paintings.
In this period #Diego found the Gallery Dahms in Wiesbaden where he exhibited and sold many paintings. He still made caricatures from time to time in #Wiesbaden, #Heidelberg and #Ramstein. There he met Joy Naffouj, a Canadian gallery owner, who was exhibiting different artists in an art show. She was very interested in Diego’s work, so he started to give her some paintings and drawings on commission.
Since his work was selling very well, they both made a contract: so many paintings for so much money per month. I believe this was when #Diego began signing with the name”Diego.” Before he had mostly signed A.Voci (Antonio Voci) or D.Voci (Diego Voci). It worked quite well.
We finally decided to marry, which we did in January 68 in #Denmark. As #Diego did not have to bother anymore about how to sell his paintings, we decided to spend the winter in the Canary Islands. We took our car in December 1968, with lots of canvases and paints of many colors. We went to #Barcelona and took the boat to Puerto del la Cruz (#Tenerife). We rented a little house on top of a big house with a very big terrace. We had a beautiful view over the ocean. We had wonderful 6 months. #Diego painted each day. Once a month we made a roll of the canvases and sent them to Joy and Jadat Naffouj in #Landstuhl, Germany.
In March 1970 the contract of our apartment in #Wiesbaden finished, the house was supposed to be sold, so Diego had the idea to move to Italy. In March 1970 we ordered a shipping company, deposited our furniture in #Bavaria at my parents` place and left for #Italy. We went to several places and finally rented a villa in Riccione at the Italia Adrian seaside. Diego was painting and still sending his paintings to Naffouj Gallery.”
AC DV History #38 6/15/2010
AC DV History #158 11/20/2013
diegovociproject 