Manlio Rho (1901 – 1957) was a painter born in

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco dialect, Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. He is considered one of the most important abstract artists in Italy.

Life and work

In the late 1920s Manlio Rho was deeply involved in Como's engagement with the European abstract movement led by

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

and

Kazimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...

. Together with the architects

Giuseppe Terragni Giuseppe Terragni (; 18 April 1904 – 19 July 1943) was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism. His most famous work is the C ...

Alberto Sartoris Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic '' Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albe ...

, and the painter

Mario Radice Mario Radice (10 August 1898 – 26 July 1987) was an Italian painter born in Como. He is considered to be an important Italian abstract artist. Life and work Mario Radice, together with Manlio Rho, Aldo Galli, Carla Badiali and ...

, he created the ''astrattisti comaschi'', a group of artists that later included Aldo Galli, Carla Prina, and Carla Badiali. This event is widely regarded by critics as a pivotal moment in the history of Italian art of the 20th century. Having worked initially in a figurative manner, he began abstract works in the early 1930s, showing a consistent preference for colour and the harmony of shapes. The art of Rho is marked by a balance between strict geometry, similar to the "cold" abstractism of Russian

suprematism Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...

, and a warmth considered typically North Italian. His works comprise flat geometric shapes glowing with lukewarm colours in a palette of greens, browns and orange. In 1940 he signed the

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...

manifesto ''Futuristi Primordiali Antonio Sant'Elia''.

Shows

In 1935 he had his first important exhibition in the

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

art gallery ''Il Milione''. His works have been shown at nine separate

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 ...

from 1940 to 1986, and in numerous exhibitions around the world. In 2007 some of his works were included in two large exhibitions held in Milan's Royal Palace: ''Camera con vista'' and ''Kandinskji and Italian Abstract Art''. Rho's works can be found in the permanent collections of many modern art museums, including

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...

and Rovereto,

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

and

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 ...

References

;References in Italian * ''Rho - Catalogo generale'', Luciano Caramel, La Provincia editore, Como, 1990 * ''L'arte Contemporanea, da Cèzanne alle ultime tendenze'', Renato Barilli, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1984, p. 246 * ''Storia della Pittura dal IV al XX secolo'', a cura di C.L. Ragghianti, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Novara, 1986, p. 220 * ''Storia dell'arte contemporanea in Italia'', Renato Barilli, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2007 * ''Peripezie del dopoguerra nell'arte Italiana'', Adachiara Zevi, Einaudi, 2005 * ''l'arte del XX secolo'', vol.II - La cultura artistica fra le due guerre - AA.VV. - Skira ;References in Italian with English text * ''Camera Con Vista'', Catalogo della Mostra - Palazzo Reale, Milano, 2007 * ''Kandinskij e l'astrattismo italiano'', Catalogo della Mostra - Palazzo Reale, Milano, 2007

External links

Some of Manlio Rho works by Caldarelli's gallery archive

Sources

* This article draws from the corresponding article in the

Italian Wikipedia The Italian Wikipedia ( it, Wikipedia in italiano) is the Italian-language edition of Wikipedia. This edition was created on May 11, 2001 and first edited on June 11, 2001. As of , , it has articles and more than registered accounts. It is t ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rho, Manlio 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters People from Como 1901 births 1957 deaths 20th-century Italian male artists