GUANTANAMO. Drawings by Antonio Pacitti. Poems by Diane Pacitti.

London: Privately printed, (2004)., (2004).. Very good. - Imperial octavo, 11-3/4 inches high by 8-1/4 inches wide. Softcover, stapled pictorial white wraps, titled and illustrated in black on the front cover. The covers are slightly bumped & creased. [24] unnumbered pages, with a cover illustration and 13 powerful black & white illustrations of scenes depicting Guantanamo Bay detainees by Antonio Pacitti. The top front corner of the pages are bumped and there is some minor creasing with a curving diagonal crease or scratch to the top corner of each illustration. Very good.

RARE.

Born in Cassino, Italy, the artist Antonio Pacitti (1924-2009) was an accomplished painter, sculptor, potter and amateur musician. Antonio's father Vincenzo's vociferous anti-fascist stance led to the family having to split up, leaving 2 of his siblings with an aunt, as the family hurriedly fled to Glasgow where they sought refuge in the slums of the Gorbals. Poverty had a lasting effect on the young artist whose spirit of generosity and kindness was reflected in his work depicting Christ's Passion, social inequality and injustice. Pacitti's studies at the Glasgow School of Art were interrupted by the war as he served with the Highland Light Infantry. He continued painting during his military service, painting murals and serving as an education sergeant. Attending Sir John Cass College and subsequently the Slade after the war, he became friends with significant artists, including Craigie Aitchison who was quoted as saying that no one else painted with "so much love, brightness and enthusiasm". Achieving recognition and awards over his career, in his later years Pacitti was inspired by Christ's Passion and the condition of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. In 2003 he painted a series of drawings depicting those detainees which he subsequently published with poems by his second wife Diane as the book at hand "Guantanamo". The work drew the attention of several critics and writers including Harold Pinter, Andrew Lambirth, Colin Redgrave, Tony Bern and Peter Maxwell Davies.