Venice, 1907-1990

Giuseppe Santomaso was born in Venice on 26 September 1907. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1932 to 1934 and in 1938 produced his first graphic works. The following year he travelled to Paris for his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Rive Gauche, where he was confronted with the works of Matisse, Braque, Pierre Bonnard and Picasso. In 1946, he participated in Venice in the founding of the group of antifascist artists Nuova secessione artistica italiana, which later became Fronte Nuovo delle Arti.

He took part almost continuously in the Venice Biennale, where in 1952 he exhibited with the Gruppo degli Otto, together with Afro, Birolli, Corpora, Moreni, Morlotti, Turcato and Vedova, painters committed to transforming the tradition of figurative painting through limitless abstraction. Among other awards, he received the First Prize for Italian Painting in 1954 and the Graziano Prize from the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan in 1956.

From the second half of the 1950s, Santomaso completely freed himself from the very form and structure of the painting: colour took on material guises, suggesting the formation of images through signs and traces. From 1957 to 1975, he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Decisive for the development of his non-objective painting was his trip to New York in 1957 on the occasion of his first exhibition in the United States at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery, during which the artist had the opportunity to meet the protagonists of Abstract Expressionism.

In 1960, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam organised a solo exhibition for him. In 1961, he participated in the São Paulo Biennale and travelled to Brazil the following year. In 1965 a retrospective of his work was presented first at the Kunstverein in Hamburg and then at the Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin and the Museum am Ostwall in Dortmund. In 1979, the Fundaciò Joan Miró in Barcelona and the Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst in Munich mounted an exhibition dedicated to his works.
Santomaso died in Venice on 23 May 1990.