Vanni Cuoghi's daily watercolors document lockdown

On March 9, 2020, Italian artist Vanni Cuoghi (born 1966 in Genoa) announced on Instagram and Facebook that he would create and post one watercolor per day at 7 PM, each the size of a postcard (10x14 cm), as a disciplined visual diary of the coronavirus lockdown. Working from his studio in Milan, Cuoghi paints on Fabriano paper, never missing a day. The project, titled "Our strange days" (a paraphrase of The Doors' song "Strange Days"), was conceived with his gallerist Giuseppe Pero, who pairs each image with a phrase drawn from news, literature, or the web. Cuoghi describes the works as illustrations of daily news but not literal translations; rather, they form a choral diary. The series is published on Instagram (@our_strange_days) and Facebook. Cuoghi plans to compile the watercolors into a book as a historical document, citing Luciano Inga Pin's maxim "An artist must always be contemporary." The project responds to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's March 9 decree advising Italians to stay home to contain the coronavirus and prevent healthcare system collapse. Cuoghi felt a threshold was being crossed that would change life and creative practice forever.