HAPPY 98TH BIRTHDAY DIEGO

Antonio Diego Voci (VOH-chee) https://youtu.be/_WUYmz0Jkc0, the youngest of 3 brothers was born Antonio Innocenzo Voci on 10 August 1920 in the mountainous region near Catanzaro, Italy, in the small village of Gasperina, Born to be an artist.

1920 August VOCI Antonio Innocenzo Birth Certificate Gasperina, Italy (2)

“Diego” was the nickname in the artist’s adult life. He shunned his middle name “Innocenzo”. His family called him “Toto” as a child he signed his works VOCI through 1965. Thereafter “Diego”.

Diego lived up to the title of his 3-page biography “This Artist Is A Lion” that appeared in the May 1974 TV Guide. “His course mane of black hair jutting out drastically behind him, DIEGO is the image of his zodiac symbol – the lion.” https://www.artifactcollectors.com/diego-history-4330818.html#43393

Diego’s voices came thru his art and over the years became the “Artist of a Thousand Faces” and “Master of the Surreal”. To view the book, “Beauty of Diego” http://www.blurb.com/books/5419805-the-beauty-of-diego

Link to August Newsletter; Celebrate Diego’s Birthday. https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=cb3fa199216c4f48823999e03&id=3f77539409

“THIS ARTIST IS A LION”

On this day, August 10, we celebrate the 98th birthday of internationally collected artist Antonio “Diego” Voci (1920-1985).

TV Guide Cover Published May 1974

I am Coop Cooprider, Diego Voci Historian. I first met Diego in late 1966. Patti and I bought our first Diego oil painting on layaway, our first of many. We were and remain addicted https://www.artifactcollectors.com/diego-history-4330818/Page7.html#98597.  In 1973-74, I volunteered for a year to help Diego become better known. One of those efforts was the 3-page biography in the May 1974 issue of the AFNTV Guide by my ghost writer Victoria Williams.

$30,000 REWARD
“The Clown” pictured above was stolen about 1980 from what was then my office in Otterbach, Germany. There is a reward of $30,000 for its return. See “The Clown” in color in the video by Stephen Max: https://youtu.be/T3ODYMxxBdc

Link to August Newsletter; Celebrate Diego’s Birthday. https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=cb3fa199216c4f48823999e03&id=3f77539409

 

“NO TOMORROWS, NO YESTERDAYS, ONLY THE #MOMENT” …#DiegoVoci™

Content in excerpt in page 4 of 8 of the 1974 Diego Catalog by Coop Cooprider, #DiegoVoci™#Historian begins with this #DiegoVoci™ Quote:

Have you done your best work yet? “No”
When will you begin? “As soon as possible.” 
#DIEGO INTERVIEW, DEC. 1973.

C18-2 The Fishermans Miraculous Catch 1974 #24943  35 12 x 51 (2)

DiegoVoci™ “The Fisherman’s Miraculous Catch” 1974 130 x 90 cm, oil on sand base canvas (experience DiegoVoci™’s unusual awareness, a wide & deep understanding of the world and the ability to make it visible as in the example of this painting above)

Notes by Coop Cooprider:

“DIEGO is an #artist. He looks like an #artist.

For DIEGO there are no tomorrows, no yesterdays, only the moment. Now is important. Enjoy.

To limit DIEGO to a “single style” is to #cage the #Lion. He can paint anything and he often does, yet there remains a strong vein, a unity and consistency in his divergent moods. #Pastel, #oil, #glass paint, #surrealism to #super-realism have all experienced the DIEGO technique – but mostly DIEGO is #people!

DIEGO #loves #people. Truly loves. People are his #life and his #work. The people on his #canvas feel. They have experienced. They have lived. They are people for which one feels compassion.

DIEGO needs canvas as well as people. 

“I must to paint. To me is important the white canvas. On the canvas I can begin again. This is my life.”

There is a reluctance in DIEGO to pinpoint his early inspiration. But he has said,

Michelangelo is the greatest There are so many. Leonardo da Vinci, Boticelli, Rembrandt, And Miro, Chagall, Picasso. So many.”

Where are the thousand words to describe a DIEGO picture? DIEGO says,

“The first idea … the first few lines decide the whole work.”

DIEGO’s first few lines are #magical. Composition comes easy. So easy. Watching DIEGO in concert with paint makes one think tying shoes would be more difficult.

Such ease. Such depth. Such strength.

DIEGO possesses an unusual awareness, a wide and deep understanding of the world, and the ability to make it visible. A DIEGO demands your attention. You may not like it, but you will be forced to react. My advice: don’t deny yourself a DIEGO. He is not “just another painter,” he is a master in the making.” 

Courtesy of DiegoVoci™ Estate: diegovociproject@gmail.com 

AC DV History #15 5/7/2010