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Pompeo Borra (1898 – 1973) was an Italian painter.

Biography

Pompeo Borra was born in

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 ...

His studies were varied: first he attended technical schools and then, briefly, the course in decoration at the Scuola degli Artefici at the Brera Academy. After fighting as a volunteer in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he returned to Milan, where he made his debut at the Famiglia Artistica in 1920. In 1924, he participated in the Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

arousing the critics’ interest with his severe language deriving from the Quattrocento characterised by solid volumes and suspended, unreal atmospheres. His archaic style drew him to the

Novecento Italiano Novecento Italiano () was an Italian artistic movement founded in Milan in 1922 to create an art based on the rhetoric of the fascism of Benito Mussolini, Mussolini. History Novecento Italiano was founded by Anselmo Bucci (1887–1955), Leonardo ...

and from 1926 on he took part in all the group’s shows. In 1928, he showed works in the major exhibition of Italian art, curated by

Franz Roh Franz Roh (21 February 1890 – 30 December 1965), was a German historian, photographer, and art critic. Roh is perhaps best known for his 1925 book ''Nach-Expressionismus: Magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten europäischen Malerei'' ("Post ...

, the theorist of

Magical Realism Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse * "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr * '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...

and German

Neue Sachlichkeit The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who ...

. During the 1930s, he renewed his pictorial language by adopting a lighter and more luminous range of colours, without, however, abandoning the solid volumes of his figures. With the paintings of this period, his reputation as an artist became firmly established and he won the Principe Umberto Prize in 1934. Between 1936 and 1939, he made frequent stays in

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 ...

where he came into contact with the art dealer

Léonce Rosenberg Léonce Rosenberg (12 September 1879 in Paris – 31 July 1947 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was an art collector, writer, publisher, and one of the most influential French art dealers of the 20th century. His greatest impact was as a supporter and promote ...

, director of the gallery L’Effort Moderne and promoter of

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

. At this time his painting was influenced by contemporary researches on abstract art resulting in a limited number of geometric works. This was followed by a vast output in which the artist did not abandon figuration and painted mainly female portraits and landscapes. Different variations on these subjects were frequently produced throughout his mature period, which is distinguished by an intense research on colour, applied in broad flat fields using tones that deliberately clash, and on the simplification of the form within a two-dimensional space. He began teaching art in 1948, first at a secondary school and then at the Brera Academy, where he was appointed director in 1970. He died in Milan in 1973.

Bibliography

* Elena Lissoni
Pompeo Borra
online catalogu
Artgate
by

Fondazione Cariplo Fondazione Cariplo is a charitable foundation in Milan, Italy. It was created in December 1991 when the Amato law, Law no. 218 of 30 July 1990, came into force. Under this law, saving banks were required to separate into a not-for-profit found ...

, 2010, CC BY-SA (source for the first revision of this article).

Other projects

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borra, Pompeo 1898 births 1973 deaths Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian male artists Painters from Milan Brera Academy alumni Academic staff of Brera Academy Italian military personnel of World War I