Emilio Vedova (9 August 1919 – 25 October 2006) was a
modern Italian painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
. He is considered one of the most important artists to emerge from Italy's artistic scene in the post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Early life
Vedova was born in
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
into a working-class family. His artisan roots came from his house-painting father. He was the third child out of seven. Emilio began working at a young age, primarily in a factory. Later he got a job in a photography and restoration studio.
Career
He was primarily a self-taught artist aside from a few night classes.
After an initial formative experience within
Expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
, he joined the group "
Corrente
The ''courante'', ''corrente'', ''coranto'' and ''corant'' are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically pair ...
" (1942–1943), during the
second world war
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, which included other artists such as
Renato Guttuso and
Renato Birolli. He recorded his experience in his drawings. During this time he also participated in the
Italian resistance movement
The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy ...
. Vedova returned to Venice towards the end of the war and played a key role in the post-war Italian art movement, which was connecting to the European
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
. His work became much more abstract. His images represented the apprehension of the time, with his geometric shapes and color palette. In 1946 he co-signed the manifesto "Beyond Guernica" which included several Italian artists who were to become famous. In 1947 Vedova founded
Fronte Nuovo delle Arti.
In 1951, Vedova exhibited his first solo show in the United States at the Catherine Viviano Gallery located in New York. This show was where he began to attract big name collectors, such as
Peggy Guggenheim
Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemianism, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who we ...
. In 1952 he became a member of the influential and more avant garde ''Gruppo degli Otto'' (
Afro
The afro is a hair style created by combing out natural growth of afro-textured hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair.Garland, Phyl"Is The Afro On Its Way Out?" '' Ebo ...
,
Birolli,
Corpora
Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to:
Linguistics
* Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts
* Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files
* Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...
,
Santomaso,
Morlotti, Vedova, Moreni, and
Turcato), organized by the critic
Lionello Venturi, which exhibited at the Venice Biennial. This show is known to have begun the art movement recognized as
Arte Informale. His work exerted a significant influence on the
Arte Povera
Arte Povera (; literally "poor art") was an art movement that took place between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s in major cities throughout Italy and above all in Turin. Other cities where the movement was also important are ...
group.
[ .n.(20 November 2006)]
Emilio Vedova
(obituary). ''The Telegraph''. Accessed July 2013.
He later established a fruitful cooperation with composer
Luigi Nono, designing sets and costumes for the opera ''
Intolleranza 1960''. In 1984 he designed a highly original light setting for Nono's opera ''
Prometeo'' at
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th cen ...
. Nono dedicated his first work for magnetic tape ''Omaggio a Emilio Vedova'' (1960) to Vedova.
Vedova had a number of gallery and museum exhibitions, at places like the
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome and the
Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
[ Alain Chivilò (2008)]
Vedova Emilio
eugeniodavenezia.eu. Accessed July 2013. His work has proven to be very successful in auctions.
Vedova spent most of his life in Venice, where he taught at the
Accademia di Belle Arti.
Awards
Vedova's offerings to art were acknowledged through awards and solo shows.
*In 1951 at the first
São Paulo Biennial, he was awarded the prize for young painters.
*In 1956 he won a Guggenheim International award.
*In 1960 at the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
, he received the Grand Prize for painting.
References
External links
Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vedova, Emilio
1919 births
2006 deaths
20th-century Italian painters
20th-century Italian male artists
21st-century Italian painters
Italian contemporary artists
Italian male painters
Academic staff of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia
21st-century Italian male artists
Italian resistance movement members