Giuseppe Capogrossi

GIUSEPPE CAPOGROSSI Rome, 1900 - Rome, 1972

Giuseppe Capogrossi, an Italian painter, was born in Rome on March 7, 1900. He graduated in Law but immediately dedicated himself to painting. In 1923, he attended the Free School of Nude Art by Felice Carena, which was one of the most renowned in Rome at that time. Between 1927 and 1933, he made repeated stays in Paris, where he developed a figurative and tonal painting style that drew inspiration from classical Italian sources. He had his first exhibition in 1927 in a group show at the Pensione Dinesen in Rome with Cavalli and Di Cocco. In 1933, together with Cavalli, Cagli, and Sclavi, he participated in an exhibition at the Bonjean Gallery in Paris, curated by the well-known critic Waldemar George, who first referred to this group as the "Ecole de Rome" (from which the term "Scuola Romana" originated). From then on, Capogrossi participated in numerous exhibitions in private galleries and public spaces. In the early 1940s, he began a transformation of his artistic research. Colors intensified with shades of red, purple, and orange, and his brushstrokes became animated. Gradually abandoning figuration, after a brief period of neo-cubist experiments (1947-1949), he arrived at a rigorous and personal abstraction characterized by a single sign-form that, through infinite variations, constructed the space of the painting, a symbolic representation of an inner spatial organization. He exhibited his works in his new style in a famous exhibition in 1950 at the Galleria del Secolo in Rome, followed by the Galleria Il Milione in Milan and the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice. During this period, he established a relationship with Carlo Cardazzo, owner of the galleries Il Cavallino in Venice and Il Naviglio in Milan, which was formalized through an exclusive contract that facilitated the dissemination and commercialization of Capogrossi's production abroad. In 1951, he participated in the founding of the Origine group, with Ballocco, Burri, and Colla, and achieved international recognition by being the only Italian artist to participate in the exhibition "Véhémences Confrontées" in Paris in March 1951. In 1954, the first monograph dedicated to the work of Giuseppe Capogrossi was published by Edizioni del Cavallino, edited by Michel Seuphor. From 1940, he held the position of teaching "Figure Drawing" at the Liceo Artistico in Rome until 1966 when he was called to the chair of "Decoration" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples until 1970. Throughout his long artistic career, he received numerous awards and recognitions. In 1962, he won the painting prize, ex aequo with Morlotti, at the XXXI Venice Biennale. In 1971, he received the "Twenty Years of Biennale" award at the São Paulo Biennale in Brazil and the Prix d'honneur at the International Print Exhibition in Ljubljana. In 1968, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, under the direction of Palma Bucarelli, dedicated an entire room to the artist's works. In addition to the paintings already present in the museum's collection, works donated by Renato Cardazzo in memory of his late brother Carlo, who passed away in 1963, were also exhibited. In 1971, the Ministry of Public Education awarded him the Gold Medal for Cultural Merits. He died in Rome on October 9, 1972.