Sandro Del-Prete (born 1937) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

artist who creates illusionary and surrealistic paintings. His style has been compared to

M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for most of his life neglected in t ...

, though it lacks the latter's mathematical precision.

Biography

Del-Prete was born in

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1937 and went to school in

Fribourg, Switzerland , neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne , twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France) , website = www.ville-fribourg.ch , Location of , Location of () () ...

. When he was twenty-three Del-Prete spent six months in

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, where he attended the

Florence Academy of Art The Florence Academy of Art is an American art school in Florence, in Tuscany in central Italy. It was started by Daniel Graves, an American painter, in 1991. Teaching is in the traditional style of the old masters. The school is a branch of t ...

. When he returned to

, Del-Prete began creating religious and

symbolic art Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realism ...

both in drawing and in sculpture. Initially he worked in the insurance industry and painted or drew just as a hobby. Del-Prete's interest in

Illusionism Illusionism in art history means either the artistic tradition in which artists create a work of art that appears to share the physical space with the viewer"Illusionism," ''Grove Art Online''. Oxford University Press, ccessed 17 March 2008 or ...

sprang from his observation of a

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...

. He wondered ‘what the animal really saw, what picture it had of its own world’. He began to look upon different perspectives and in the early 1960s began creating illustrations that would lead to his later ‘illusory’ images. Del-Prete began to experiment, drawing scenes and objects that could be looked at from two different viewpoints. He completed his first double-perspective painting, ‘Window Gazing’ in 1961 and continued to experiment with the style for the next two decades. In 1981 Del-Prete self published a collection of black and white pencil drawings called ''Illusorismen''. Illusorismen was very successful and convinced Del-Prete to become a professional artist. In 1987 he published a second collection of his art called ''Illusoria'', which was followed by a third book in 2007. One of his sculptures, Loubegaffer, a statue with eyes that seem to follow the viewer, was placed on permanent display in the main rail station in Bern. He opened a gallery on Schwarztorstrasse in Bern, before moving, in 2002, to nearby Ittigen and opening ''Illusoria-Land''. The gallery, fun house and museum displayed many of his works. In 2014 Illusoria-Land closed in Ittigen and moved to Restaurant Kreuz in Hettiswil bei

Hindelbank Hindelbank is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021 the former municipality of Mötschwil merged into Hindelbank. History Hindelbank is first mentioned in 1275 as ''H ...

.Restaurant Kreuz in Hettiswil website
accessed 29 June 2017

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Del Prete, Sandro Swiss painters Living people 1937 births Artists from Bern