John Ratner, Insect, Oil Painting on Paper, 20th Century

Including frame: Height: 45 cm ; Width: 35.5 cm ; Depth: 2 cm ; Weight: 1.430 Kg
Excluding frame: Height: 20 cm ; Width: 30 cm

Beautiful oil painting on paper, depicting a worm, I presume a processionary, made by John Ratner, an important Californian artist who moved to Italy in 1958 and still lives and works in Rome. The painting has a beautiful contemporary frame and can be dated to the second half of the 20th century. The processionary is a moth larva, covered with stinging hairs, which lives on pine trees and other conifers, causing damage to plants and skin and allergic reactions in people and animals.


About the artist and/or manufacturer:
John Ratner was born in Berkeley, California in 1934 and has lived and worked in Rome for over 40 years, as he himself says: “When I came to Italy, I was going to stay two or three years, but then I thought - if it's good here, why change? - I had the opportunity to paint, to do my job, I had no reason to change. Frankly, I love Italy, but if I had the opportunity to go to New York or Paris, I would go. I am free”. The artist arrived in Italy in 1958 and immediately worked in the Transavanguardia group, active in those years, founded by Achille Bonito Oliva, who presented the last exhibition “Metamorphosis” as a “personal” exhibition, as the painter himself says. John Ratner has exhibited in the group's various group shows and has held solo exhibitions in Roman galleries, achieving great success with the private market; many of his works are part of elite collections. In Rome, among other places, it is possible to see his works in stages: in fact, the American artist created “La Stanza del Maestro Ratner” inside the famous restaurant in Piazza del Popolo, “Il Bolognese”; going up the Pincio you can find another canvas in the Hotel Hassler and finally, outside the city, a fresco with a sacred theme for the Church of the Odescalchi in Palo Laziale.