Vito Perona (1872-1957) - Abstract landschap

Beautiful, early abstract-expressionist painting by Vito Perona.

Perona served as a forerunner for material painting; his extreme impasto anticipated the three-dimensional layers of paint with which Bram Bogart would later break through internationally.

- Artist: Vito Perona
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Style: Abstract Expressionism
- Period: 1920-1930
- Dimensions: 60 x 33 cm (frameless); 70 x 40 cm (framed)
- Painting sold with frame

Vito Perona (1872, Terni – 1957, Belo Horizonte) was an Italian expressionist painter who is best known for his Orientalist landscapes and abstract forest scenes with a striking thick paint texture (impasto).

Perona had a very individual style. Almost all of his paintings were made on a wooden panel, his preferred support. Perona was praised for his refined oil technique on wooden panels and his mastery of light effects. He worked especially in the 1920s and 1930s with extremely thick layers of paint to emphasize the roughness of nature and landscapes.

He traveled and lived in North Africa until 1934, where he drew inspiration for his characteristic Orientalist scenes and landscapes. Although he stayed for shorter periods in large colonial cultural cities such as Algeria and Tunisia, he consciously chose not to settle permanently in those metropolises, but chose Rabat, Morocco as his main home base. From Rabat he traveled to European capitals such as Paris and London to exhibit his paintings made in Africa. One of his well-known recurring themes is, among others, Marché Tara in Morocco.

In May 1933 he enjoyed international recognition with a prestigious solo exhibition at the Royal Gallery of Art in Kleykamp, The Hague.

A year later, Vito Perona emigrated to Brazil where he continued his productive artistic career. He moved in with his brother Peppino Perona, secretary of the Italian consulate in Belo Horizonte, and remained there until his death on 26 May 1957 in Belo Horizonte, living and working. His presence quickly attracted attention in the South American art circuit. Thus the Sociedade Brasileira dos Amigos da Italia organized large-scale exhibitions in the country where Perona’s works were shown.

His paintings reside in private collections, but also in museum collections. His painting “La Fête du Meyboom,” a large work from 1932, is part of the collection of the Museum of the City of Brussels. Works by Perona are also seen in Italy, including the Biblioteca Comunale in Terni.

In Brazil, Perona produced important murals in the presbyterium of the Cathedral of Uruguaiana in Rio Grande do Sul. The wall paintings and frescoes in the chancel were completed by Vito Perona in 1948. It is one of his most extensive religious projects that can still be viewed on site.

His paintings have been exhibited in Belo Horizonte and in the prestigious Museu Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro.

The painting for sale will be well packaged and shipped.