Remembering John Zito at the Slater Memorial Museum

Written by Mike Collett-White Tuesday, 22 November 2011 00:09

Norwich, CT - On display an exhibition in Converse Art Gallery, of the Slater Memorial Museum features the life’s work of Connecticut native John Zito, Jr. The exhibition continues through November 25, 2007. The exhibition will offer a sampling of a remarkable 45 years of painting, drawing and sculpture.

Born into a family of stone carvers, Zito’s vocation in his father’s monument business in Hartford included drawing and designing elaborate monuments for Connecticut’s notables and restoring historic burial grounds throughout the state. His cartoons for carved granite and other stone include floral and foliate designs, ethereal figures and powerful calligraphy. These delicately classical pieces, which John often carved by hand, are works of art in their own right.

John Zito’s training began as a student of sculpture at the Hartford Art School but it years later his creative passion turned to painting in oil on canvas in the tradition of the old masters. His work reveals a particular love for the paintings of Titian as well as Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Rubens, Picasso and Renoir. Zito’s canvases explore themes inspired by tales of mythology and operatic narratives.

Following their wedding in the early sixties, John and his first wife, Rosemary, took a year-long honeymoon, living and working together drawing, painting and sculpting in Florence. This experience strengthened Zito's foundation in the academic tradition and reinforced the deep respect for antiquity that is evident in his art.  John left behind thousands of drawings, prints and sketchbooks some of which are on display in the gallery.

John Zito, Jr. was the father of three children; John III - the eldest - is carrying on the monument business in Hartford, Antony - a practicing artist working mostly in New York City, and Katie - a proud mother of three living in New Hampshire. The Tuscan-style stone farmhouse that John Zito designed and built by hand in East Granby is occupied by his son, Antony.

The Slater Memorial Museum and Converse Art Gallery are part of the Norwich Free Academy, 108 Crescent Street, Norwich 06360. Housed in an exemplary Romanesque Revival building (1886), the museum features full scale plaster casts of Egyptian, Archaic, Greek, Roman and Renaissance sculpture; 17^th – 20^th c. Americana, fine and decorative Art, Native American artifacts; Asian, African, Oceanic, Egyptian, and European art and ethnographic material. Open year round. Tues – Fri, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Sat/Sun 1 – 4:00 p.m. Please call 860-887-2506 ; and visit : www.norwichfreeacademy.com/