Ernesto Treccani

ERNESTO TRECCANI (Milan, 1920 -2009)
"Bust of a young man".
Oil on canvas glued to cardboard.
Signed.
Provenance: gallery Comas.
Measurements: 50 x 35 cm; 64 x 48 cm (frame).

Ernesto Treccani was an outstanding Italian painter. Son of the senator Giovanni Treccani degli Alfieri, founder of the Treccani Institute, from young participated in the artistic and antifascist circles. In 1938, at the age of 18, he founded and edited the magazine Corrente, a meeting point for artists such as Birolli, Guttuso, Migneco, Sassu and Morlotti. His first solo exhibition took place in 1949 at the Il Milione gallery in Milan. After his participation in the Resistance, he collaborated with the magazines il 45 and Realismo. During the fifties he exhibited repeatedly at the Venice Biennale, in London and in New York. His painting was inspired both by the peasant life of southern Italy (especially in Melissa) and by the urban landscapes of Milan and Paris. From the 1960s onwards his production expanded with important series such as La luna e i falò (1962-63), Da Melissa a Valenza (1964-65) and Popolo di volti (1969-75). He held exhibitions in the Soviet Union and in many European countries. In 1977 he painted the drappellone del Palio in Siena, and in 1978 he created the Fondazione Corrente, dedicated to the cultural promotion and study of Italian contemporary art. Over the following decades he continued to exhibit in Italy and abroad, with outstanding retrospectives at the Palazzo Reale in Milan (1989) and at the Fondazione Bandera (2003). His final work was characterized by a renewed attention to color and the energy of light. Ernesto Treccani died in Milan in 2009, leaving a legacy deeply tied to the poetic and committed realism of 20th century Italian painting.