Adelina Zandrina (1893-1994) - Angelo

Mixed media painting signed front lower left and on the back of

Adelina Zandrino (Genoa, 1893 – Genoa 1994).

Measures 50 x 40 cm (single piece)
With a beautiful, coeval Boldini lacquered frame, with slight imperfections to be considered a tribute.
Opera in perfect condition and performed in a pleasant and refined manner.



Biography

At a very young age, she discovered her vocation for art and studied for several months with masters Federico Maragliano and Giuseppe Pennasilico.

Showing an excellent aptitude in landscape, portrait, and still life, she soon debuted in 1913 at the International Exhibition of Women's Art, held in Turin, where she was immediately noticed. Thanks to her compositional ease and skillful use of color, from the very beginning of her career she worked simultaneously in book illustration, commercial graphics, interior decoration, and easel painting.

In 1913, she held her first solo exhibition in Rapallo, then traveled to Paris with her father, a journalist and theater critic, establishing herself as a theater costume designer and book illustrator. In Paris, she met Auguste Rodin, Robert de Montesquiou, as well as Gabriele D'Annunzio, who had just presented his Le martyre de Saint Sébastien to the public, music composed by Claude Debussy. Returning to Italy, during World War I, she produced patriotic postcards and posters. In 1917, she created a series of masks postcards, and a series featuring the woman and the beast in a symbolist style.

Starting from the 1920s, he dedicated himself to ceramics, collaborating with the Casa dell'Arte of Manlio Trucco, with whom he exhibited some painted dishes depicting genre scenes in costume or masked at the Mostra della Promotrice genovese in 1922. He also created numerous other ceramic objects, such as plates, candelabras, mugs, albarelli, cake stands, lampshades, characterized by strong chromatic vibrancy, perhaps recalling his Parisian experiences, particularly the Ballets Russes. He also produced small sculptures, usually female figures, inspired by Decadentism and the Belle Époque. In the 1930s, he made small terracotta sculptures, produced at the Fornace Tonet in Genoa Sturla, generally painted with cold colors, depicting themes of motherhood or the female condition.

In 1930, she exhibited some of her works at the First Women's Art and Labour Exhibition, held at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, for which she also designed the exhibition poster. In 1932, she held an important solo show in Genoa, where, in addition to ceramics and terracotta, more than seventy paintings were displayed. In 1936, she participated in the Milan Triennale, and in 1937, in the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. She held solo exhibitions at the Ranzini Gallery in Milan in 1944 and 1946.

In 1950, he was present at the International Exhibition of Sacred Art in Rome, where he displayed the painting Concert of Angels (1939). Also for the Holy Year 1950, he produced a series of twelve postcards with allegories featuring Christological motifs and Pope Pius XII.

From the 1950s until her death, the depicted subjects will mainly be religious, featuring sweet Madonnine, angels, and children, which will be reproduced in series for holy cards and greeting cards. An interesting painting depicts Sister Maria Repetto next to the statue of Saint Joseph she venerated (1968), preserved in the refectory of the Convent of the Brignoline Sisters in Genoa.

Among his most significant works are the triptych Sitio, Consummatum est, and Figlio mio, the paintings The refectory of the mothers, Alma Mater, The other motherhood, and especially Soave licor di vita; other important works include The harvester, The bathers, The necklace, Dance movement, Quasi una fantasia, Spring, Awakening, Royalty, Circe, Jena, Candor, Blonde Head, Meal, Mèle, as well as numerous studies of beasts drawn from life; among the portraits are those of Antonio Gallera and Father Aloisio del Buono.

As an illustrator, she created drawings for Sem Benelli's books Les plus belles heures de Casanova and Orfeo e Proserpina, as well as for numerous children's books, such as Piero Domenichelli's La promessa (1929) and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1950).

He/she/they will hold personal shows in Genoa, Milan, Rome, Buenos Aires, and Hollywood.

The artworks are preserved at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Genoa, Savona, Milan, Rome, at the State Galleries of Helsinki and Tallinn, and at the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris.

She was an academic of merit at the Ligustica Academy of Genoa, awarded the Stella Fiumana, the gold medal of artistic merit from C.I.P.A., and in 1982, the Olivo d'Oro Prize.