What they think of my work
<i>Le Fiabe dell'Opera Lirica</i>
 
Le Fiabe dell'Opera Lirica
 
"Lyric opera becomes stories for young and old - a smash!"
Gina Avogadro, Il Giorno, 31/03/1980, Italy
 
<i>Ma Première Bible en Images</i>, Volumes 1 and 2
 
Ma Première Bible en Images, Volumes 1 and 2
 
"Tales from the Old Testament, miraculously compressed, with primitive merry pictures by Letizia Galli, its brilliant ironing-out of all those complicates stories, makes it the best introduction to the Bible I have come across for years."
Angela Hut, Sunday Telegraph, 11/12/1988, UK

"It's a delightful chunky little hardback... a delightful menagerie faces a verse from Genesis"
David Self, The Times Educational Magazine, 16/12/1988,UK

"There is a lot to say about Letizia Galli's illustrations. We are far from Saint-Sulpician sentimentality. This young Italian, born in Florence, was trained as an architect. The construction of each of the images that she creates translates her taste for balance. A force emerges, a solidity that excludes neither beauty, nor sensitivity, nor spirituality – quite the contrary."
Michelle Gautheyrou, Le Figaro, 14/10/1987, France
 
<i>La Mythologie Grecque</i>, Volumes 1 and 2
 
La Mythologie Grecque, Volumes 1 and 2
 
"How to depict to children the Earth, solitary at the beginning of time, who draws the Sky from herself so that he covers her and together fill the world? How to evoke the slice of the knife which cuts the virility of the Sky? Or else, the adultery of the beautiful Aphrodite, poorly matched with the blacksmith Hephaestus and seduced by the braggart Ares? The drawings… thanks to Letizia Galli… are able to captivate and adapt for children the fable's extraordinary vitality and enthusiasm, which make the gods leap above the mountains... The author's greatest success is perhaps in first evoking the ordering of the world. To depict Chaos, the initial void, what a challenge! … This introduction is awash in the delightfully honest colors of Letizia Galli... One can never be introduced to these things too early."
Pierre Chuvin, Le Monde, 28/06/1991, France

"Letizia Galli introduces modernity with color in employing an entire nuanced range of her inks, and in using a detached sense of humor in her drawings that allows for multiple readings... drawings so attractive in form and volume that one can imagine them hanging on the wall, a great pleasure to the eye … few illustrators, having chosen the domain of children's books, would bring as much to her readers as Letizia Galli does."
Janine Despinette, "Une Odyssée dans les Images" [An Odyssey in images], Bordeaux Book Fair, 2/11/1991, France
 
<i>Michael the Angel</i>
 
Michael the Angel
 
"Galli's artwork is equally notable: she plays with perspective so that the cityscapes virtually overwhelm the viewer in the manner utilized so successfully by Braque, or rather in a manner which might have been used by Braque in a picture book."
M.M.B., The Horn Book Magazine, July- August 1993, USA

"The sharpest delight comes from the pictures, which reproduce that kaleidoscopic tumble of shapes and color that enchants every visitor to Italy."
Sonja Bolle and Susan Salter Reynold, Los Angeles Times, 20/07/1993, Los Angeles
 
<i>Harlequin and the green dress</i>
 
Harlequin and the green dress
 
"… the bright and colorful illustrations of Letizia Galli, who brilliantly succeeds in imbuing Harlequin and Co. with lively, modern edge without ever losing the spirit of the originals."
Karl Michael Emrys, The Washington Post, 2/10/1994, USA
 
<i>Mona Lisa, The Secret of the Smile</i>
 
Mona Lisa, The Secret of the Smile
 
"Highly theatrical, her stylized, disjointed figures and skewed, multi-perspective architectural settings invoke a kind of controlled anarchy… outsized heads popping out of roofless buildings and free-floating geometric shapes add a touch of surrealism, while a subtle marbling of the colors keeps the ambience firmly antique."
Publisher's Weekly, 26/2/1996, USA
 
<i>Willy's Stadt</i>
 
Willy's Stadt
 
"…the technique of surrealist – and even supremacist – deconstruction of the landscape transforms the city, outfitted with heads, into a sort of hydra, with green and red strokes recalling a Chagall from the beginning of the 20th century. Discreet homage to De Chirico, the fantastic invades the entire space of the page, which is like a portrait of the modern city…here only, it seems, the desire to read, if it exists, can live. … Nothing surprising in what is established through a vertical format and in that white strokes function to evoke a frame within which lives the scholar of the illusion of veduta."
Jean Perrot, " L'Art de l'Illustration ", Nous voulons lire, March 2002
 
<i>Il Sogno di Federico</i>
 
Il Sogno di Federico
 
"The pensive face of the little Federico Fellini, clearly inspired by Balthus' painting La Rue, with eyes riveted on one of its mirages and his appearance of determination towards a sentimental dream…The technique and the style of Letizia Galli evolves over the course of her books, which are, unfortunately, distributed less widely in Italy than abroad."
Carla Poesio, Liber n. 26, Italy, Januray-March 1995

"The result is a tremendous book about … magic… covered in references to Federico Fellini."
Lucie Cauwe, Le Soir, 23/9/1995, Belgium

"What a superb homage to the magician Fellini! ... A book that is remarkable for several reading levels: children will read about the story of a child magician, adolescents and adults will read about the birth of a great filmmaker."
Denise Escarpitt, Nous Voulons Lire, Christmas 1994, France

"An anecdotic suggestion (Federico running away behind the circus), with the excellent illustrations of Letizia Galli, gives homage to the incomparable director, Federico Fellini… The magic of his work, without a doubt, will be the same felt by those who approach this beautiful book."
Diario de la Terrassa, 16/12/1994, Barcelona, Spain

Fantasy and poetry bathe this homage to Federico Fellini in an ambiance nourished by reminiscences. At the beginning, Picasso-esque cubism…Chagall-esque parade of dancing characters…and Seurat-esque pointillism for this trail in the stars. Happy are those, child-like, who know how to get caught up."
Figaro Littéraire, 16/2/1995, France
 
<i>Sein name ist Igor</i>
 
Sein name ist Igor
 
"Letizia Galli's graphical dynamism uses brilliant contrasts between massive and dark structures (the stairs, hallways and vaults of the Moscow metro) and the fragmented and suddenly colorful images of feet, faces and clothing of passengers ... The originality of this artistic language has an obvious and long lasting effect on the transmission of the message and on the reactions that it provokes."
Carla Poesio, "Contes de Guerre" Andersen n. 151, September 1991, Italy

"…The illustrations of this exceptional book … situate themselves in a surprising way in the purest tradition of cubist painting. The illustration space is decomposed in numerous facets…These illustrative spaces, fitting within each other and fragmented, are full of mysterious openings, nooks, and angles."
Jean Thiele, "Les Cadres Brisés de l'Enfance, " Elsehor Magazine, March 1999, Germany

"A message of hope remarkably illustrated by images that are largely inspired by Russian avant-garde painters, such as Malévitch... and Filonov, whom Letizia Galli particularly admires."
Janine Kotwica, Institut Suisse Jeunesse et Médias, Lausanne, 2005.

"A book with illustrations marked by melancholy that Letizia Galli dedicates to the children of the street across the world. In observing them attentively, a question begs asking: How can children who are forced to beg to survive in the big cities grow up?"
Bucherpick, October 1998

"This story is accompanied by meticulously beautiful and particularly attractive illustrations. The first responses for this program are positive. In Switzerland, ¾ of bookstores surveyed have ordered it and the window decoration kit has also had a notable success."
Jungenliteratur, 4/1998, Suisse

"The visual elements of geometric form are juxtaposed and superposed. The forms and colors retranscribe both the different situations and the ambiances. In each illustration, the red ball that Igor plays with to forget the world around him appears. This element of evasion in face of the hard reality is reinforced by the fairy tales that his old friend Igor tells him. This illustrated story… shows how fairy tales can nourish hope of leading a worthy life."
Ursula Führer, EKZ, September 1998, Germany

"The drawings of Letizia Galli in Connais-tu Igor?, the story of a child living on the streets of Moscow, are particularly striking."
Schweizer Buchhandel, 12/1998, Switzerland

"It is a book that is marvelously written and illustrated by the Italian Letizia Galli. The extraordinary description of Igor and Valentine's fairy world make this illustrated story a true work of art. Connais-tu Igor? is a particularly refreshing story. Not surprising then that this work of art enjoys support from The Romanov Fund for Russia, an organization that works on behalf of sick, abandoned, and orphaned children.
Karin Muller, Blick, 26/11/1998, Switzerland
 
<i>Comme le Papillon</i>
 
Comme le Papillon
 
"The pages, full of very fine pictures and details, evoke at every moment the duality real-unreal. The closing and opening of different panels… draws us towards the infinitesimal world of the colorless microcosm of grains of sand where life squirms, to transport us, in the next moment, towards explosions of color..."
Carla Poesio, Liber n. 49, January-March 2001, Italy

"With Comme le Papillon, Letizia Galli delivers a new book with superb illustrations which seek to introduce children to a theme which is often difficult to address: spirituality."
Gladys Martial, Sept Magazine, 2/11/2000, France
 
<i>La Folle Équipée</i>
 
La Folle Équipée
 
"… a discreetly feminist message and futuristic illustration which give pride of place to aggressive architecture and violently colored neon lights. A discreet homage to Ronsenquist and Rauchemberg served by elaborate mixed techniques and an audacious collage of materials..."
Janine Kotwica, Trouville s/mer exhibition catalogue, June 2004, France
 
<i>À la Courbe du Joliba</i>
 
À la Courbe du Joliba
 
"A message that is superbly emphasized by the illustrations of Letizia Galli which are at once realist in its representation of faces and expressions, and done with stylized economy – bodies divided and redistributed like parts of a toy – and by a play of abstraction – heads without eyes or with half closed eyes –, suggesting the symbolic function of the characters depicted. All of it adorned with the colors of Africa, from the white shack amidst the dark vegetation to the blue river, then the tawny desert..."
Jean Perrot, Citrouille, France

"The illustrations of Letizia Galli perfectly accompany this story and are a treat for the eyes. Not to be missed on any account."
Sandrine Lebreton, Page, December 2006, France

Between war and peace, between yesterday and today, Africa…

Janine Kotwica: Your portraits, Letizia, are striking. Did you paint them from life?
Letizia Galli: An old photo of these girls that Maryse lent to me was certainly a departure point for my inspiration, but afterwards, Maryse's words and her fictional story took me, of course, much farther.
JK: You have, each with its own means, marvelously rendered the beauty of nature – the majesty of the River, the seduction of the Desert – without falling into the clichés of touristic folklore. Letizia, you know little of Africa, and yet your images of buses, bush taxis, paddle boats, little jobs, are accurate, lively, picturesque. What documentation did you use?
LG: Photos or documentation aren't very useful to me since we aren't in a text-image juxtaposition.
JK: In your little paintings there is a stylization, in an African context, which recalls the Russian avant-gardistes that you love. But here, it's very different from your previous books.
LG: I'm happy that you noticed an evolution in my work. I don't know if the Russian avant-gardistes have influenced me very much or if I'm going back to them in my personal study in visual perception.
JK: Have you thought, Letizia, of a particular musician in so lively sketching the young Fama?
LG: Rap has now entered the patrimony of the younger generations. It's a language that is much more important than what was thought at the beginning. Everything comes from Malcolm X, from Linton Kwesi Johnson who developed this style in their poetic and ideological speeches.
JK: Letizia, you have published a lot on your Italian roots, then you diversified your sources of inspiration. What does the collaboration with Maryse bring you?
LG: I illustrated this story, while trying to also transmit my knowledge of Maryse and my admiration for the great novelist that she is, for her extended use of francophone speaking, her linguistic mixing, her neologisms. Her writing exerts a fascination in me that goes beyond the subjects of her novels.
…
Interview by Janine Kotwica, Parole, January 2007
 
<i>Milioni per Mister Master</i>
 
Milioni per Mister Master
 
"Milioni per Mister Master is a book that works well because it is the fruit of perfect synergy between the text and the illustrations… the dynamic, geometric and joyously colorful drawing style of Letizia Galli… is based between words and images in a continuity that is very fascinating and never banal."
William Grandi, Infanzia, Januray-February 2009, Italy
 
 
"Des Livres et la Rue" Exhibition
 
The work of Letizia Galli, highlighted in such a pertinent and original way by this installation, a breadcrumb trail between sites, in a perfect thematic coherence… the story of the street celebrating is very baroque. A true mise en abyme of the illustrator-author Letizia Galli"
Sandrine Leturcq, La Revue des Livres pour Enfants, 19/2/2001, France
 
 
"Une Florentine à Trouville" [A Florentine in Trouville] Exhibition
 
Brio de l'invention que sert un esprit d'or,
Rapidité du trait, palette vagabonde,
A peine, en tes dessins la Bible elle est au monde,
Voici que naît Gaïa, et Pollux et Castor.
Arlequin, Fellini, Michel-Ange et Igor
les rejoignent bientôt. Et ton œuvre féconde,
attirant vers le haut les chères têtes blondes,
Leur enseigne la vie, la vraie, à bras le corps,
En cet art accompli que tant de talent orne
Ton génie malicieux ne connaît point de borne.
Il te fallait Florence et New York et Paris.
Zingara !..Reste là, car nous voulons tout voir
Illustrations,tableau, esquisses et croquis,
A Trouville, où l'on est fin connaisseur des arts.

(Acrostic titled "BRAVA LETIZIA," composed by Véronique Schiltz for the exhibition catalogue in June 2004)
 
In Sara and Peter's room
 
In Sara and Peter's room
 
"(...) The collection "In Sara and Peter's room" should be published again after nearly 25 years from the first publication, because it keeps a fresh taste of vitality and actuality (...)" (Andrea Rauch, Principi e Principi, 2011)
 
Andersen: Letizia Galli
 
Andersen: Letizia Galli
 
"(...) Her artwork is astonishing for she keeps a great attention to her research of peculiar techniques and to a constant and impelling necessity of renewal. (...) In La Folle Équipée Grasset, Paris, she deals with a serious confrontation and pays homage to the American Pop Art." (Walter Fochesato, Andersen 2011)
 
The Mythology - Volume 1 and 2
 
The Mythology - Volume 1 and 2
 
"(...) The ancient Greece to be discovered again by the young readers who may ask themselves how much the greek people kept in consideration their Gods and why such a number of different miths has been created (...)", (Carla Poesio, Liber)

"(...) These books tell such far stories and make us feel the atmosphere of that time, so that we are invited to go back to the text from Hesiod to Homer. The wonderful stories of Gods, humans and heroes are told for the eternity (...)", (Andrea Rauch, Principi e Principi)


"(...)The adventures of gods, their interaction with heroes and humans in ancient Greece, the main characters of legendary, far and fantastic stories, have become mythology and have been transmitted up to now. These adventures have been revisited in those two volumes in a totally original, easy and fascinating manner... by L. Fischetto and L. Galli... in a sophisticate graphic design... the watercolours have a sharp and precise outline, free from any affectedness and tell us, in polychromatic visions, a fantastic genesis of creatures who generate strange creatures in an archaic world between heaven and earth. (...)", (Donatella Trotta, blog www.lindro.it, 17/11/2011)
 
il Pepe verde
 
il Pepe verde
 
"In the images of L.G. there is a key element, a real artist's touch: rhythm and musicality" (Ermanno Detti)
 
Andersen
 
Andersen
 
"... strike the unusual lapping of planes, the vertigo of the perspectives, the dense of dashed lines, almost dusty, where they emerge, sketchy ... the dislocation of the spaces and of the human figures aims towards an emotional reading and, at same time, to seize all the kinetic dynamism of situations." 
(Walter Fochesato)

 
Catalog of the collective exhibition for the 50th anniversary of CRILJ
 
Catalog of the collective exhibition for the 50th anniversary of CRILJ
 
"...her very structured pictorial and theatrical universe testifies to his great culture, but also to a form of lyrical-cosmic expressionism…her atypical universe serves as a guide to a precise and personal initiation to the craft of images and all its possible implications." (Christiane Abbadie-Clerc)
"...the colorist talent gradually states itself, with refinement and subtlety, playing on a great variety of tones, from the darkest to the more delicate. Attempting harmonious agreements or fearless discordances. The intelligence of the artist is also revealed in the structure of the page, finding a harmonious placement of the text within the image itself, sometimes emphasizing the choice with a certain humor." (Janine Kotwica)
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