Testimonial letter from Mario Giollo
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Mario Giollo. It is "Exhibit A-737" in the Noles collection.
The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has one page.
 22nd July 1983 To whom it may concern I am an artist and have worked as such as both a painter and a sculptor for the last ten years. I obtained my diploma in decorative art in 1972 after 5 years study at C.S.I.A. (Centro Scolastico Industrie Artistiche) in Lugano, Switzerland. I subsequently studied for two years at Brera Artistic University in Milan, Italy. During my period of training I worked closely with Nag Arnoldi, Marco Piffaretti, Togni, Bruno Bernasconi, the late Peitro Salati and Cotti, all of whom rank amongst the most famous artists in Europe. I was awarded the "Bariffa" prize as the best sculptor at C.S.I.A. in 1971. I have held many successful exhibitions throughout Europe and I have been commissioned to create sculptures for public places including the Congress House in Luga no and the Limmat Quai Park in Zurich. The central focus of my work is to find new ways to express space and form in order to trigger a sensory response in the observer. In 1979 I became acquainted with a group of artists called the "Rajneesh Art Group" and was very much impressed by the large scope of their work and its innocence and spontaneity. Having become acquainted with the writings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh I find inspiration for a new direction in my art through a rediscovery of the pure joy of painting and sculpture, rather than a deliberate intellectual effort designed to produce a particular concept. Seemingly in relation to the work of the Rajneesh Art Group, and certainly with my own work the religious vision of this man, his extraordinary taste, incredible understanding and a multidimensional approach has provided a new inspiration. I regard Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh as an exceptional religious leader and I see him in that context as a great artist, a man who has brought a new fragrance, a new sense, a simplicity to an art which has become too cerebral and less spontaneous; too intellectual and less from the heart; an art which has been lost for centuries, and which I believe has come back through him with a new light. I saw his words become manifest in the paintings inspired by him. I am a competent artist and my first exposure to this work rendered me speechless. Yours truly |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
