Franco Battiato, Italian singer-songwriter and visual artist, dies at 76

Franco Battiato, the influential Italian singer-songwriter, painter, and filmmaker, died on May 18, 2021, at age 76 in Milo, Sicily, due to Alzheimer's disease. Born in Jonia on March 23, 1945, Battiato was a multifaceted artist who spanned genres from pop to electronic music, and also created visual art and films. His 1971 album 'Fetus' was among Italy's first electronic music records. He gained widespread popularity with the 1981 album 'La Voce del Padrone' and the hit 'Centro di gravità permanente'. As a painter, he began in the 1990s under the pseudonym Süphan Barzani, producing around eighty works focused on Sufi dancers and spiritual themes. His paintings were exhibited in Rome, Catania, Stockholm, Miami, Florence, Gothenburg, and notably at a 2014 Istanbul show 'Quisque faber fortunae suae'. Battiato also composed operas, including 'Gilgamesh' (1992), and directed films such as 'Perduto Amor' (2002), 'Musikanten' (2005) starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, and 'Attraversando il Bardo' (2015). Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini called him a master and a unique, inimitable artist.