Giuseppe Capogrossi (7 March 1900 – 9 October 1972) was an Italian painter.
Biography
Capogrossi was born in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. After obtaining a degree in law in 1923–1924, he decided to study painting with
Felice Carena
Felice Carena (13 August 1879 – 10 June 1966) was an Italian painter.
Biography
Born at Cumiana, he studied in the Turin's Accademia Albertina, where he attended symbolist poets such as Arturo Graf and Giovanni Cena. In 1906 he moved to ...
at
Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma
The Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma is a public tertiary academy of art in Rome, Italy. It was founded in the sixteenth century, but the present institution dates from the time of the unification of Italy and the capture of Rome by the Kingdom ...
. In 1927 Capogrossi embarked on a formative trip to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
together with fellow artist and acquaintance
Fausto Pirandello
Fausto Calogero Pirandello (17 June 1899 – 30 November 1975) was an Italian painter belonging to the modern movement of the ''Scuola romana (Roman School)''. He was the son of Nobel laureate Luigi Pirandello.
Biography
After a short experience ...
.
In the 1930s Capogrossi participated to many group exhibitions in Rome, Venice and Milan and Paris, usually as associate to the so-called "
Scuola romana
Scuola romana or Scuola di via Cavour was a 20th-century art movement defined by a group of painters within Expressionism and active in Rome between 1928 and 1945, and with a second phase in the mid-1950s.
Birth of the movement
In November 192 ...
" ("Roman school"). In 1930 he was invited to show at the 23rd edition of the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
; In 1933 he signed with
Emanuele Cavalli
Emanuele Cavalli (1904–1981) was an Italian painter belonging to the modern movement of the Scuola Romana (Roman School). He was also a renowned photographer, who experimented with new techniques since the 1930s.
Biography
The son of Apulian la ...
and others the "Manifesto del Primordialismo Plastico" (The Plastic Primordialism Manifest) and in 1934 he was one of the artists invited to the exhibition the "Exhibition of Contemporary Italian Painting" at the Western Art Museum in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.
In the years following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Capogrossi's work changed in favour of a more
abstract style. His work was part of the
painting event in the
art competition at the
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...
. In 1950 he was one of the founders of Gruppo Origine, together with Mario Ballocco, Alberto Burri and
Ettore Colla in Milan. The group rented a gallery space in Rome where they had their only exhibition in January 1951. The show wasn't successful and the four disbanded a few months later.
Capogrossi subsequently became one of the main exponents of Italian informal art, together with
Lucio Fontana
Lucio Fontana (; 19 February 1899 – 7 September 1968) was an Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor and theorist. He is mostly known as the founder of Spatialism.
Early life
Born in Rosario, to Italian immigrant parents, he was t ...
and
Alberto Burri
Alberto Burri (12 March 191513 February 1995; ) was an Italian visual artist, painter, sculptor, and physician based in Città di Castello. He is associated with the matterism of the European informal art movement and described his style as ...
. Capogrossi participated in the Premio
Bergamo
Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...
in 1939, 1940 and 1942, and in exhibitions such as the first edition of
Documenta
''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany.
The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...
in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
(1955) and the third and fifth
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial (Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...
in 1955 and 1957.
Capogrossi died in Rome in 1972. In 2012, his work was the subject of a retrospective at the
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the , an 18th-century palace, which was the home ...
in Venice.
Collections
Capogrossi's work is held in the permanent collections of the
Toledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...
, the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, the
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
, the
University of Michigan Museum of Art
The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...
, the
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, the
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...
, the
Williams College Museum of Art
The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is a college-affiliated art museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is located on the campus of Williams College, and is close to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and the Clark Ar ...
, the
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is an art museum located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, within the university's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Founded in 1881 as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, it ...
, the
Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...
, and the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
.
Exhibition views and works
File:Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6356371.jpg, Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, 1963
File:Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6361507.jpg, Painting by Capogrossi, 1972
Selected bibliography
*
*
Sources
External links
*
Short biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capogrossi, Giuseppe
1900 births
1972 deaths
Painters from Rome
20th-century Italian painters
20th-century Italian male artists
Italian male painters
Italian contemporary artists
Olympic competitors in art competitions