There is in Achille Guzzardella's sculpture a clearly visible and recognizable vocation for the cleverness of man in the light of features, in the sharing in gestures. So much so, that it is possible for the simple and occasional observer of his work, to grasp at once the nature of a voice based upon the inner truth of things rather than the simple rendering of them.
His poetics is neither abstract nor unfounded. It seems important to us to acknowledge, together with the novelty of his basical attitude, the force of his vocation, the need he feels to stand by man, that ambition of his to draw out from the image a more subtle and secret meaning. To compose, for him, means above all to recreate under a different light and within other voices the Master's of the past lesson and his own generous passion.
Milan, 19 October, 1988.
Achille Guzzardella's appointment with spiritual reasons was proposed right from his early works, but was realized through a long series of experiments, adjustments and corrections, by studying and portraying his character's faces.
There is no doubt that in investigating and revealing the secrets of those faces, caught between reality and intuition, Guzzardella finally succeded in recording the same religious anxiety. It is the constant game between what one wants to express and what, perhaps unwittingly, one tends to hide.
On this basis, on these fundamentals, he has been building up the new part of his work, and yet has opened up his deepest and most secret time, reaching far beyond the simple occasion and the whirl of different inspirations. This time of expectation and of many approaches allowed him to avoid any repetitive pattern and above all the rule of consecration and celebrations.
Thus, when one examines his religious works and pays close attention, one finds that what is most striking about them is the strain, the degree of passion that is kept back and suffering.
To conclude: Guzzardella, the Christian, summarizes and renews himself in the depth of his early human vocation and operates a transformation with the instruments of reduction and additions.
We could say that in the rush towards purification, he has glimpsed and pursued the token of mystery and has completed, illuminating it, the human zone. Rather than a metamorphosis, it is a real and true spiritual illumination, the result of a journey towards the Mothers. From here, Guzzardella may take off in order to arrange his innermost world within the range of a higher vision. Milan, 21 June, 1995.
(About Carlo Bo's two critical essays, here gathered side by side, it must be pointed out that the second was published in "A. Guzzardella, REPERTI. Municipality of Milan, Museo Archeologico, 1977", page 7. The first, instead, was published four times: in "Guzzardella: The Portraits", Milan, E.L.S.A., 1989, page 7; "Achille Guzzardella: 12 Portraits", Milan, E.L.S.A., 1995, page 8; "Achille Guzzardella: Twenty Years of Sculpure", Milan, E.L.S.A., 1996, page 41. Care of REPERTI, Milan, Museo Archeologico, 1997, page 7).
"The inheritor of an endless renewal, his young age itself my fail to give him full credit, and it is exactly from it that Guzzardella takes off again with full fervour, with the daily courage to again confront his growth and perhaps the sight of this sort of private therapy. Thus he tries to rouse the harmony that abides the deep subjectivity of his being, which is waiting to be re-explored (as he himself is), and that attentive progression of redescovery which is the artist's task, in his wish to animate the thick and small world of the portrait, the structure of the cold block…"
Domenico Cara: "Achille Guzzardella: 12Portraits", Milan E.L.S.A., 1995, page 4. "Achille Guzzardella. REPERTI", Municipality of Milan, Museo Archeologico, 1997, page 38.
"Achille Guzzardella presents portraits of several personalities of today's world.
The artist has a gift of exceptional freedom in his research of form and character; throug his imagination, he skilfully depicts the sensitivity of the matter and causes the image to rouse interest by controlling the elements which make up the work's architecture.
In addition, he creates a particular relief in modelling the image, which seems willing to open a conversation with the observer.
Manzù would have said: "This young man has found light in matter, has discovered the sore of time".
Ibrahim Kodra: "Achille Guzzardella, 12 Portraits", quoted on page 18. "Achille Guzzardella, Twenty years of sculpture", Milan, E.L.S.A., 1995 Page 45. "Achille Guzzardella. REPERTI", Municipality of Milan, Museo Archeologico, 1997, page 38.
"I have known the young sculptor Achille Guzzardella for years, and he always surprised me for the passion that constantly animates each of his thoughts and talks about Art and in particular about sculpture, to which he dedicates himself with such tireless eagerness.
The portraits of friends and well-known personalities he turns out with undeniable freshness and --perhaps -- just a touch of boldness, are works of a solid sculptural talent and I -- an old practitioner of this art -- am sure that of these portraits something will stay with us".
Luciano Minguzzi, "Achille Guzzardella, 12 Portraits", quoted on page 22. "Achille Guzzardella, Twenty years of sculpture", Milan, E.L.S.A., 1995 Page 61. "Achille Guzzardella. REPERTI", Municipality of Milan, Museo Archeologico, 1997, page 38.
re".