Words from Helga recently shared with us on October 17, 2019; “In 1968 we spent 6 months in Tenerife. At that time we had a Fiat sport car cabrio and we drove to Barcelona and took a boat to Tenerife, it took 4 days and almost all passengers were seasick.”
Diego Voci; Beach of San Marcos Tenerife 1968 24″ x 30″
“Me too, except Diego and a Swedish man. We became friends with him during the whole time we stayed there. We rented a small bungalow which was built on top of a big house and which had a very big terrace with a great view over the island and the sea. It was great. On this terrace Diego painted mostly and at that time he had a contract with Joy and Jawdat (Naffouj)and we would sent her about 20 paintings each month in a roll. We had a fantastic time there.”
Margaret Carrow shares memories of her Aunt’s memories of how she collected her two internationally collected artist Diego Voci (VOH-chee 1920-1985) paintings.
Margaret shares;
My Aunt lived most of her life in Europe working for the Air Force as an administrator of the Air Force schools, in Germany, France and Spain. She is 93 (in 2012) years old and I have moved her back to the states,along with her personal possessions including two of her paintings.She talked about the artist she knew while she was in Germany. The two oil paintings by Diego are signed on the front and the back. I have taken pictures of them and have included them with this letter. One of the paintings needs some repairs, and I didn’t know how I should have this done. My Aunt is living in a retirement home, and wanted her paintings to be with her. She told me that Diego was working on a painting for President Kennedy when she first met Diego.”
Diego Voci; Paessaggio 1966 32″ x 23 3/4″ oil on canvas
Diego Voci; Fiore 1966 23 3/4″ x 19 7/8″ oil on canvas
What Christmas meant to Helga Voci. This says more about Helga than we have ever
known.
From Helga;
“In my family Christmas was always a very traditional , also
sentimental and familiar festivity with a lot of food preparation and each year
it had to be the same dinner, as fish soup, carp with homemade potato salad and
different other salads, big dessert. I remember my mother was cooking for 2
days and some weeks before Christmas she started with special Christmas cookies
and Christmas cakes and nobody was allowed before Christmas to try them. We
always spent the Christmas days with the whole family in Bavaria, it was cold
and all covered with snow and at midnight we used to go to church, it was a
small and cosy village church and it was very nice.
When I first knew Diego in Paris he was not a big fan of
Christmas, I think he had been too long away from his family, mostly
vagabonding through the world, then he became acquainted with Josiane, his
first wife. She was from Genevra, her father had a cottage somewhere in
the mountains and they went there in wintertime, skiing and probably also for
the Christmas festivities.
The first year with Diego in Paris we decided to go and live in
London, just before Christmas I left Paris and went to Germany to spend the
Christmas days with my family, Diego, instead, left for London. At that time he
did not yet know my family and he wanted to meet them another time. We stayed
about 10 months in London and as it was raining a lot he wanted to leave and
drive towards the south, as far as possible. So we landed in Almuniecar, a
small village in South Spain, rented an apartment and stayed for about 6
months there, it was beautiful and warm but no Christmas atmosphere, I wanted a
Christmas tree, and as there were no such trees growing there we went to
Madrid(about 500 km or more) and bought a nice Christmas tree, packed it on the
car and transported it to the South. Then later on we mostly spent the
Christmas days in Bavaria with my parents and my sister and her family and my
grandmother and Diego also liked it, he liked to be in the family and he liked
our tradition.
Later on , when Alessandra was born and Lakshmi, our Indian housemaid stayed with us and we lived in Taunusstein, my parents also used to come to our house for Christmas, always with the same tradition. One year we had a very big Christmas party in our house (see image below), together with Christine and her family, Keyvan and Liliane Dussard with her children, my parents and Lakshmi, there is a foto we made at that time, it was a very beautiful party.
And then in 1985, a few weeks before Christmas Diego died, within
6 weeks and this year was my and my daughter`s most awful Christmas.!”
Internationally collected artist Antonio Diego Voci (1920-9185) was fascinated with “man’s animal instinct to overpower”at the risk of life itself.
Joy Naffouj represented Diego beginning in (1966); shares a unique factor she had not seen in other artists: “Speed at which DIEGO worked, his hand blurred & he would create a sketch so detailed so quickly” just as quick as the “Running the Bulls” in Spain.
Google DIEGO VOCI and click “IMAGES” to see a Gallery of Diego Voci’s works of art.
Picasso’s influence and contribution to the history of #20th-century art is undeniable. The exhibition uses several premises to support the idea that Picasso never ceased to be interested in the origins and traditions of painting, in much the same way as his migrancy bound him emotionally to his homeland, never shedding his loyalty to his cultural ties: #Málaga, #Andalusia and #Spain were all part of his “southernness”, and not just in artistic terms.
DIEGO Voci, an #artist who also thrived in the “South“; #Andalusia region and connected deeply with the people. Helga Voci (widow of DIEGO Voci (VOH-chee) shares in writing from her #memories….“So we decided to go to Spain in October 1961. We took the car and went southward, stopped in several cities and after about 1 month we arrived in the Andalusia region in a very beautiful little fishing village called #Almunecar. This was an artist`s colony, all kind of artists from different countries. We stayed until January 1962. We had a beautiful and very interesting time with long discussions, Diego also made paintings and drawings but he never kept anything, when the painting was finished he was not interested anymore and made presents to friends. He was very popular among the Spanish people also the higher class and he felt wonderful.”
DIEGO Voci; “Liegender Akt” D2811-641 60x80cm Private Collection
Diego Voci; “The Two Napoletan Fisherman” 60x70cm oil on canvas Private Collection
“The Two Napoletan Fishermen” by Diego, owned by a Diego Collector who has a total of 10 Diego works in their collection. Back in the mid 1970’s, this collector visited Diego at Diego’s home studio for wine and conversation.
Antonio Diego Voci (VOH-chee) (1920-1985, born in Italy) connected with people all throughout his travels, capturing in his mind the faces of people and
During our research on the title to this art work, we stumbled upon the heritage of Napoletan Fisherman. Here is a bit of history to Napoletan Fisherman;
“Masaniello (abbreviation of Tommaso Aniello; 1622 – 16 July 1647) was an Italian fisherman who became leader of the revolt against the rule of Habsburg Spain (refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries) in Naples in 1647. Masaniello was one of the most popular figures in Neapolitan tradition.”
To learn more about Diego Voci, Artist of a Thousand Faces, click here: www.diegovociproject.com
Diego Voci; Italian Poster was for Theater in #Italy (shared by Mario Voci, Diego’s Nephew)
It would be extremely rare to find a signed #caricature by internationally collected artist Antonio “Diego” Voci, even though, he did thousands. And if he did sign, it would be some form of Voci through 1965.
Caricatures were a source of Diego’s quick money in his early years. Diego was known to complete 20 drawings in one sitting of only a couple of hours. Helga Voci, (Diego’s widow) was his constant companion for 25 years (1960 until his death in 1985).
Helga notes Diego’s caricature experience in her biography “Sometime later I found out that DIEGO was doing caricatures in American Officers Clubs in #France, #Germany and later on also in #London and #Spain. He did wonderful caricatures, it took him only a few minutes to do each one and people were crazy about them, they stood in line waiting for their turn. He made a lot of money with this”https://www.artifactcollectors.com/diego-history-4330818/Page2.html#43754
Today, is the first day of KWANZAA, a week-long holiday honoring African culture and traditions. Antonio #DIEGO Voci was fascinated with all cultures. #Traveling he embraced traditions of many nations. Shown here is an African Mother and Child resembling Diego’s Madonna and Child genre which we posted just 6 of last week.
“Young Mother With Child” 80cm x 40cm ,Oil on Canvas, #1061-569. Sold December 1976 by “La #Gondola” risttorante in Germany where DIEGO loved to dine!
Kwanzaa is celebrated in the United States, as well as other countries with populations of African descendants. It is a holiday which celebrates and honors #African culture in not only the #African-American community but also in the World African community.
This cultural festival from the 26th of December to the 1st of January that climaxes in feasts and gift giving, was initially established to unite African-Americans with their African roots and heritage. Kwanzaa is celebrated by lighting a candle daily, beginning today, 26 December 2017, through January 1, 2018 when it ends. #Happy Kwanzaa all!
For more on Diego’s travels see our “Antonio Diego Voci” – History Thread on Artifact Collectors, where the Diego Voci Project has posted numerous stories shared with us by Diego #Collectors”. Here is one you’ll get a kick out of Helga Voci’s story about Diego the “perfect Indian“: https://www.artifactcollectors.com/diego-history-4330818/Page4.html
A #child touches #Salvador Dali’s #tombstone inside the Teatre-Museu Dali (Theatre-Museum Dali) in #Figueras on July 18, 2017 ahead of the exhumation of the artist’s remains. The remains of the world-famous #surrealist, who is buried in his #museum in Figueras, in northeastern #Spain, were ordered exhumed after a woman who claims to be his #daughter filed a paternity claim.
The presence and recognition of Diego Voci (1920-85) is expanding each day in the world of art.
Here is a recent discovery of a Diego Voci collector Ann Birkhimer whose daughter Karen shares with us their family’s Diego collection.
The beginning…..”During 1972-74 at one of the officers clubs (not sure but may have been Rhein Main) near Wiesbaden, Germany the paintings were purchased. My father was stationed there on three separate occasions, the last being 1972-1976.”
“My mother (Ann) bought them because she just loved them all. One of them is in the cubist style and quite large (my brother has that one) and it was quite unusual that she (Ann) would purchase something so “modern” as she has always tended to be rather traditional in her tastes. The painting is called “Masks”. But, for some reason the painting “spoke” to her and she bought it along with the three other more traditional paintings. Those three all look sort of Spanish or Moroccan.”
The inspiration for the Spanish “Une Village en Espagna” and Moroccan paintings came from Diego’s love of the people and warmer climates. Here is an historical excerpt from Helga’s (widow of Diego Voci) biography of her and Diego:
“The weather was very bad in London and Diego wanted to go south to the sun. So we decided to go to Spain in October 1961. We took the car and went southward, stopped in several cities and after about 1 month we arrived in the Andalusia region in a very beautiful little fishing village called Almunecar. This was an artist`s colony, all kind of artists from different countries.
We stayed until January 1962. We had a beautiful and very interesting time with long discussions, Diego also made paintings and drawings but he never kept anything, when the painting was finished he was not interested anymore and made presents to friends. He was very popular among the Spanish people also the higher class and he felt wonderful.
In February 1962 we left Spain and went to Morocco, first to Casablanca and Tangier and then he was supposed to go to Marrakech to do some work in an American Officers’ Club. I had to go to Germany for personal reasons, so I flew to Munich while Diego stayed in Marrakech.”
diegovociproject 