Lithograph by Renato Guttuso - Still Life with Melon 1971

Artist: Renato Guttuso (1911-1987)

Born in Bagheria in Sicily in 1911, Renato Guttuso was one of the most important Italian artists of the twentieth century, and his name is among those that have marked the history of Italian art in the second half of the twentieth century. He discovers art through his father, also a painter, and since he was a child he devoted himself to landscape painting, portraying the views and mountainous reliefs of his land, from which he will be inspired throughout his artistic career. He first studied in Palermo, then moved to Rome in the 1930s and finally arrived in Milan in 1932; in these years he met many prominent artists and writers and above all formed his anti-fascist political conscience. He was a leading exponent of Corrente, the artistic movement whose name derives from Corrente di vita giovanile, a magazine born in 1938 in Milan, based on an idea by the painter Ernesto Treccani (Milan, 1920 - 2009); the objective of the movement was to reconcile political life with an idea of independent art, free from the power of the fascist regime, in opposition to the twentieth century group, considered close to fascism. Also in 1938 the group's manifesto was published, but the experience was already partially concluded in 1943, with the suppression of the magazine by the fascist regime. In 1945, to escape the fascist repression, Guttuso escaped to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso. After the war, Guttuso's art will acquire an ever greater political weight, becoming one of the most interesting experiences of his time. He joined the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti artistic group (1946-48), to give a voice to all the artists who, due to fascism, were unable to freely exercise their art in Italy. Guttuso travels a lot both in Italy and abroad, obtaining recognition, important collaborations for theatrical sets, Italian and international magazines, as well as an invitation to exhibit several times at the Venice Biennale. Since 1965 he has lived and worked in Rome at Palazzo del Grillo, without ever abandoning his political career (his communist faith had never failed: in fact he had already joined the underground Communist Party of Italy in 1940), culminating with the election a senator in the PCI, the Italian Communist Party, in 1976. On 18 January 1987 he died in Rome at the age of seventy-five.

Age: Contemporary

Contemporary

Subject: Still life

Artistic technique: Printing

La stampa è un processo per la produzione di testi e immagini, tipicamente mediante l'impiego dell'inchiostro su carta e di una pressa da stampa. Spesso viene svolto come processo industriale su larga scala ed è una parte essenziale dell'editoria.

Technical specification: Lithography

Lithography is a technique of mechanical reproduction of images. The procedure was invented in 1796 by the German Alois Senefelder using a stone of the quarries of barbecuing and leisure activities, a small town close to Munich. Initially called "chemical printing on stone", and assumed very soon the name of "lithographic art" or, more simply, of lithography.