Salvatore Olentino (1932-2020)
at 86 years old, Salvatore Olentino, our friend and neighbor, had his first ever art show. 100 paintings, all sold in under an hour. as exciting an experience as that was for everyone, it came as no surprise. Sal was one of the most kind, gentle and honest people i have ever known. he taught himself how to paint... alone... in the small Brooklyn apartment he shared with his wife, daughter and granddaughter... he did not paint because he wanted money or praise or prestige.. but because he wanted to paint.... and paint he did. Sal amassed, over several decades, a mountainous body of works painted on recycled canvas... each in their own hand-painted-gold frame, lovingly stashed-away in a corner of the only bedroom in his tiny apartment above me.
it was only by chance that i ever even knew that sal was a painter. smoking cigarettes on our bench one day, as we did, i asked sal what was in his bag. there was a pause... then a brief hesitation in his eyes... for a moment i began to fear i had crossed some sort of line... and as i began to apologize, Sal produced from his bag, what would become one of my most prized possessions. a painting... of a cat. it was incredible. it wreaked of strength... with a pungent vulnerability..... honest, gentle, mysterious, kind... it delivered... on many levels.... and, what’s more, of the hundred (+) other paintings he would come to share with all of us, not a single one fell short of delivering that same impact. i loved every one, all for the same reasons i loved sal, and for the same reason you all bought every one of his paintings, faster than i could mark them “sold”.... sal was very very chill.
there were photos taken of every painting in his show but the camera they were on was stolen. there was video taken of the opening, but the footage has proven to be elusive. i made this from an interview sal and i did with story corps & whatever pictures i had on my phone... i love you Sal! We all love you
“sto riposando”