Bonaria Manca

Bonaria Manca (10 July 1925 – 17 October 2020) was an Italian painter of the naïve art style.[1]

Bonaria Manca
Born	10 July 1925 Orune, Kingdom of Italy
Died	17 October 2020 (aged 95) Tuscania, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Painter

Biography

Manca was born in Orune in Sardinia. She arrived in Tuscania in 1950 with her family. The twelfth of thirteen children in a family of shepherds, she was set to follow in her family's footsteps.[2] The treatment of wool and fabric in water would come into representation in her later works. She has been exhibited in Rome, Turin, Paris, Lyon, Geneva, Thessaloniki, Marseille, and the Netherlands. In 2000, she transformed her house in Tuscania into a small museum, called La Casa dei Simboli.[3] She painted scenes of rural life, women washing clothing in rivers, and surrealist figures. Writer and filmmaker Jean-Marie Drot said of her work: "What I like about Bonaria's work is that almost nothing comes from the head, but everything comes from the heart. For me, it's a cosmic painting. [...] The house of Bonaria, in a way, is perhaps unique in all of Italy. Having a Bonaria painting is like having a talisman, a lucky charm in a world of loneliness, like opening a window to the next day, a future full of light".[4]

Bonaria Manca died in Tuscania on 17 October 2020 at the age of 95.[4]

References

1. "È morta Bonaria Manca, la pittrice-pastora che illuminava la vita semplice". La Reppublica (in Italian). 17 October 2020.
2. "Bonaria Manca, vita di una pastora e di una pittrice". Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). 7 November 2013.
3. "Alla scoperta della Casa dei Simboli, dimora dell'artista pastora Bonaria Manca a Tuscania". Artribune (in Italian). 14 September 2018.
4. "Farewell to Bonaria Manca, the "shepherd artist" of peasant life". Web24News. 17 October 2020.