Giuseppe "Bepi" Santomaso (1907 – 1990) was an Italian painter and educator.[1][2] Santomaso was an important figure in 20th-century Italian painting,[3][4] and he taught art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia for 20 years.
Giuseppe Santomaso | |
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Born | September 26, 1907 Venice, Veneto, Kingdom of Italy |
Died | May 23, 1990 Venice, Veneto, Italy |
Other names | Bepi Santomaso |
Education | Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia |
Occupation | Painter, educator |
Movement | Arte Informale, Lyrical abstraction |
Awards | Feltrinelli Prize (1983) |
Giuseppe Santomaso was born on September 26, 1907 in Venice, Veneto region, Kingdom of Italy (now Italy), to parents Ida Cattelan and Filippo Santomaso.[5] His father was a master goldsmith.[1][5]
In childhood he showed a talent in drawing and briefly studied under Venetian painter Luigi Scarpa Croce (1901–1967).[5] In 1926, when he was 18 years old, he showed his work for the first time at Ca 'Pesaro in an exhibitions highlighting young artists at the Bevilacqua la Masa Foundation.[5] From this experience he made friends with art critic Giuseppe Marchiori [it], and painter Leone Minassian.[5] In 1932, he started his education at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.[2][6]
Santomaso's early paintings were influenced by French modernism.[7] In the 1940s, he painted Georges Braque-inspired still lifes, and abstract linear cages (or prisons).[7] In the 1970s he shifted his focus and his renowned series Lettere a Palladio (1977; English: Letters to Palladio) featured abstract geometry influenced by architecture.[8]
In 1934, Santomaso participated in the 19th Venice Biennale, and subsequently exhibited there often in the 1950s, including at the 27th Venice Biennale (1954).[5][9]
In 1946, Santomaso and Emìlio Vedova were introduced by art critic Marchiori to Peggy Guggenheim in Venice.[7][10] In the same year 1946, he signed an antifascist manifesto alongside Giuseppe Marchiori, Renato Birolli, Bruno Cassinari, Renato Guttuso, Ènnio Morlotti, Armando Pizzinato, Emìlio Vedova, Leoncillo Leonardi, and Lorènzo Viani; this group later formed the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti art movement.[11][12]
After the dissolve of the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti in the early 1950s, and by 1952 Santomaso had joined the Group of Eight (art group) [it].[11][9] In the early 1950s he turned towards the Arte Informale art movement.[11] From 1954 to 1974, he taught painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.[2]
In 1983, he was awarded the Feltrinelli Prize for painting from Accademia dei Lincei.[2] In 1992, the Guggenheim museum featured his Lettere a Palladio series and published a related exhibition book.[11]
Santomaso died on May 23, 1990 in Venice.[5]
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