"... So in our time you see individuals who also have a serious and normal aspect, repeating like so many monkeys and so many parrots, the grimaces, the slogans, and the clichés that they hear around them or who read in books, magazines and newspapers. Contrary to this kind of people, Giorgio Zamberlan looked with his eyes and judged with his brain and rebelled and reacted violently if someone, in good or bad faith, tried to convince him to accept or admit something that he, Giorgio Zamberlan, neither wanted to accept nor admit .... "(G. De Chirico, Preface to the autobiography of G.Zamberlan, p.IX)


Who Giorgio De Chirico was is obviously well known and well known, who Giorgio Zamberlan was is less obvious. Indeed, probably obscure to most people, even among insiders. Yet, without Mr. Zamberlan from Treviso even De Chirico himself would not have been and become that great artist known to all. Because Zamberlan and his family accompanied the great painter in his artistic and professional path, promoting and spreading his work for a long time, with affection, mutual respect and I would say heartfelt friendship. The role of the gallery owner, and Zamberlan has always been one, is delicate, precious and indispensable, especially in a pre-internet and pre-social period. Zamberlan from his Venetian atelier has accompanied De Chirico over the years, has followed his artistic growth, his national and international success, and together they have conceived projects, such as that of the Anti-Biennials, of devastating modernity. Other than simple provocations, but counter-exhibitions organized in every detail, even with the publication of precious and rare leaflets full of programmatic texts.

There is an autobiography in form of short stories by Giorgio Zamberlan, whose reading really excites and captivates (G.Zamberlan, The merchant in the room , My Monkey Editions, 2021). We must wade with regret at the men of that generation, who have passed through devastating war events and yet capable of an absolutely extraordinary will to live, to smile, to engage in the world and for the world. Zamberlan was a social man, a man of relationships, perhaps not easy in character but of undisputed leadership. He lived surrounded by more or less famous artists and from all of them he drew lymph to grow, humanly and professionally. He plays football in his Treviso with Arturo Martini, he frequents fraternally with people like Comisso, De Pisis, Morandi, but then he chooses his elective mates: and Giorgio de Chirico was one of these, perhaps the first.
Of this deep friendship, much more than a professional collaboration, the 170 letters sent by the painter to his Venetian friend over the span of almost 25 years bear witness.
From the first , dated 12.12. 1940:
"Dear Zamberlan, I had the Minos and I thank you. Here is another effective and substantial article to give to Minos, but give it now, because here the invasion of the French crusts increases every day. Then send me the newspaper. As for the two small squares, take care that I really can't do two 20x30 cm, less than fifty thousand each. Your kind family.
Kindness
G.de Chirico "& nbsp;
Already in 1948 he announced that he is suing the Biennale:" ( ...) In any case, I beg you not to reproduce my metaphysical paintings on the cover because we would become enemies. You know that I am suing at the Biennale where they wanted to trip me with the makeup of metaphysical painting. (...) "-" The most of the people, the best part of the public is against the Biennale which in essence was a solemn fiasco and only served to persuade people more than ever that all of this This spree called modern art is nothing more than a bluff and a scam. Therefore we must be grateful to the organizers of the Biennale for having rendered this service to the honest and intelligent. "
One could go on and on, describing for example the extraordinary letter in which he draws the arrangement of the paintings in the Zamberlan gallery. for the preparation of an Anti-Biennale, but the correspondence still remains to be studied and is a real mine. Between the lines of this friendship, and of the one that will bind him to Morandi, de Pisis, Comisso etc. the path of a great intellectual, cultured and refined, at the service of artists: Giorgio Zamberlan, from Treviso. & nbsp;