Giuseppe Santomaso

GIUSEPPE SANTOMASO (Italy, 1907 - 1990).
"Immagine", 1979.
Etching and aquatint on Arches paper, copy 28/66.
Signed and numbered by hand.
Measurements: 65 x 50 cm.

Famous Italian painter, Santomaso was one of the founders of the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti, and from 1952 he was a member of the Grupo degli Otto. Influenced by Hartung and Braque, he moved in the post-cubist figuration. He is considered one of the greatest exponents of "actino painting" and informalism. The son of a Venetian goldsmith, Santomaso began his artistic training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1932, and two years later he was invited to participate in the Venice Biennale. In the mid-thirties he came into contact with avant-garde art, and in 1937 he made a trip to Holland, where he studied the Impressionists and the Fauves. During these years he also visited the International and Universal Exhibitions in Paris. In the French capital he discovered the works of Matisse, Braque, Bonnard and Picasso, which impressed and irritated him at the same time. In 1939 he held his first solo exhibition at the famous Parisian gallery Rive Gauche. During the war, the artist concentrated on painting, and in 1942 he illustrated Paul Eluard's collection of poems "Grand Air". A year later he would present his work at the Rome Art Quadrennial. In 1946 Santomaso participated in the formation of the artistic group Nuova Secessione Artistica Italiana, later renamed Frente Nuovo delle Arti. With this group Santomaso fought for a language halfway between realistic illustration and pure abstraction. The artist manifested his position towards classical modernism at first through a symbolist and subjective language influenced by Braque and Léger. In the early fifties he evolved along the lines of informalism, which was reflected in his increasingly abstract compositions. His paintings contain compositions of architectural clarity, which in the mid-seventies are combined with constructive elements of Venetian palaces, inspired by the incomparable colors of the city of canals. Until his death in 1990, Santomaso taught at the Venice Academy of Art, and between 1954 and 1974, for twenty years, he participated thirteen times in the Biennale held in Venice. He was also invited to Documenta on several occasions, and took part in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Santomaso is currently represented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin, the Palazzo Leoni Montanari in Vicenza and the Peggy Gugganheim Collection in Venice, among others.