Early Life

I take a thick pencil

me & the paper

carefully intensely

I draw

every object holding still

to watch me absorbed in the act

a bit unusual

for a 3 year old child

that has gone through the day

full of restless movement

with a thirst of discovering

the new in hidden places

two separate movements

one of perennial motion

the other totally deeply

absorbed in concentration

excluding all

but full of precious meaning

in the act of drawing

I knew then I was an artist

Excerpt from Poem, October 16, 1990

Aldo Tambellini

1931 - 1939

As a child, Tambellini showed early promise in the arts, drawing and painting with great skill at the age of just three. At the age of five Tambellini came down with pneumonia, bronchitis and pleurisy which left him bedridden for several months. To entertain him, his mother purchased a battery-operated Lanterna Magica projector, which came with film strips of cowboys. He organized a theater in his home, providing screenings to his friends. Shortly after, his mother gave him a Marinette theater. Tambellini would paint scenery and write plays, staging performances from his window for the audiences below. Later in life, Tambellini would give credit to these early experiences, with toys, as an important influence on the art of filmmaking and performances.

At age ten, Tambellini’s mother enrolled him in the Passaglia Art Institute in Lucca. There, he studied Art History, Fine Arts, and classical Italian and Greek literature. His earliest literary influence, during this time in his life, came when he was required to memorize and analyze cantos from Dante’s Inferno. The darkness from the Inferno would color his work throughout his life.

It was also during this period in Tambellini’s life, when he first started writing poetry.

1942-43

1942 and 1943 were the most frightening years of Tambellini’s childhood. Fascist Italy’s alliance with Nazi Germany and entrance into WWII ushered in a time when military discipline was inflicted on all Italians. A Fascist director took over the art institute Tambellini attended. Knowing Tambellini was an American citizen who soon would be returning to the United States, the director bullied, struck, and tormented Tambellini. During this time, each Saturday was dedicated to indoctrination lessons, by the Fascists, for all school-aged children. Tambellini, whose Saturdays were reserved for carrying a portable easel into the field to paint, refused to comply with the new regulation. This left his mother to make up lies to the Fascists who looked for him. Eventually, the enforcers stopped searching for Tambellini, something he recalled as his first victory against a cruel and powerful establishment.

once

    on epiphany day

    january 6 ’44*

    at exactly 1:00 p.m.

  we all looked at the sky

    knowing the american b29s

    were moving in our direction

    we did not move

    it was a numb fascination

    conditioned by months of false alarms

once

    the bombs dropped

    destroying the neighborhood

    that was mine

    in those details contained in childhood secrets

once

    I saw the earth hurled by force

    in chunks lifting to the sky

    friends & neighbors died

    others survived deformed

once

    I heard mothers calling

    familiar names in desperation

once

    at the first detonation

    I jumped off the bike

    face touching my street

    laying under shattered glass falling

    walls ripped open

Excerpt from Poem, August, 1990, Aldo Tambellini

1944

An air strike killed twenty-one of Tambellini’s neighbors, destroyed his neighborhood, and forced his family to take refuge with his aunts in the nearby countryside of Guamo. There, Tambellini was at peace, but in just  few months, the tranquil farm life, which was full of creating art, was disrupted by the arrival of Nazi soldiers. These soldiers took over the farm and began a period of terror, which included a list of rules, that, if not followed, were punishable by death.

The routine of living under Nazi occupation went on for months and then, all at once, frightening and relentless shots were exchanged from the farm into the distant hills.  This went on for days. One night, it all became silent.  At daybreak, Tambellini and others cautiously left their hiding places and realized that the Nazis had deserted the farm during the night.  As they looked to the mountains, towards Pisa, they saw clouds of dust approaching Guamo.  Soon, they realized that the dust was coming from approaching American jeeps.  Everyone ran towards the jeeps with cries of joy and liberation. It was then that Tambellini saw the faces of the black American soldiers, his first introduction to African American culture, who had come to end his nightmare. Later, Tambellini learned that the battalion that had rescued him and his family was the segregated 92nd Infantry Division, the so-called Buffalo Soldiers. This all black group of servicemen, under the command of white leaders, had been promised their own liberation from segregation in America in exchange for their service. This unforgettable experience, at an early age, left a lasting impression on Tambellini, shaping his commitment to anti-war and radical politics.

Tambellini’s watercolor, created during the Nazi occupation of his family farm in Guamo, 1944

Tambellini (right) with school friend, Lucca, Italy, ca. 1946

1945-1946

After being liberated, Tambellini and his family moved back to Lucca and Tambellini returned to the Art Institute. Thrilled to find his collection of artwork intact, he was devasted when the director of the institute refused to let him touch any of his work. Driven to find new creative outlets, Tambellini created murals for the Italian veterans in a hospital in Lucca, painted scenery, took part in a play presented to the veterans, and painted a mural for the American G.I. Club.

Being a US citizen, Tambellini was granted the right to return to America, where his father was living.  His brother Paul, also a US citizen, was drafted by the US Army while in Italy and required to stay there. At the same time, Tambellini’s mother was starting to show signs of mental illness. It was at this point that Tambellini’s father and brother made arrangements for Tambellini and his mother to return to America, something Tambellini did not want to do. He was frighted by the thought of living with his father, a man who regularly beat Tambellini and the rest of his family during his visits to Italy. Leaving his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin, Tambellini’s support system and the only family he knew, terrified him.

Tambellini, ca. 1946

1946 - 1959

After Tambellini and his family were liberated by the Buffalo Soldiers, Tambellini and his mother returned to America on the United States Naval Ship, Marine Carp. Upon their arrival, they were met by Tambellini’s father and the dysfunction of the family immediately recommenced. As a way to escape, Tambellini immersed himself in his art and eventually resumed his studies.