Giuseppe Santomaso (1907-1990) - Composizione

The painter-engraver-etcher Giuseppe Santomaso was born in 1907 in Venice.
He studied in his hometown at the Academy of Fine Arts (1932–1934).
He began his graphic career in 1938, a form of expression he never abandoned, an opportunity to participate in the adventure of the modern illustrated book.
Fascinated by the avant-gardes since youth, in 1937 he first traveled to the Netherlands, where he studied the Impressionist and Fauvist artists.
After a stay in Paris (1939), where he was greatly impressed by the works of Matisse, Braque, Bonnard and Picasso, the young artist became involved in the Corrente movement, which developed in Milan between 1938 and 1943, a movement that reflected a break with official rhetoric.
In 1946 Santomaso became a founding member of the Nuova Secessione Italiana, which later came to be called the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti – a group of antifascist artists – and later he joined the circle of the Otto group (with Renato Birolli, Antonio Corpora, Ennio Morlotti, Emilio Vedova, Giulio Turcato, Afro Basaldella and Mattia Moreni). At this time the artist began his first explorations toward abstraction.
Between 1948 and 1950 his works show an upscale of color, viewed as more important than the formal structure of the previous period. Santomaso’s expression becomes instinctive; color is truly the essential element.
Santomaso’s art is based on the automatism of gesture, on exploiting transparencies and the vibrancy of colors. The artist drew his palette from the tradition of Venetian painting, thereby giving his work a new, vibrant essence, entirely suffused with poetry.
Exhibitions followed one another: he participated in Documenta in Kassel (1955, 1959 and 1964), in the São Paulo Biennial (1961), in the Tokyo Biennale (1967) and in the Venice Biennale (13 times!), and his solo exhibition in 1979 at the Fondazione Joan Miró in Barcelona.
Numerous retrospectives of his work were organized (Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and Brussels 1960, Hamburg and Berlin 1965–66, Venice 1982, Locarno 1990).
From 1957 to 1974 Giuseppe Santomaso taught at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts.
The artist died in 1990 in Venice.
Photos are part of the condition description.