Coloured lithograph on paper, 1953

Giuseppe Capogrossi  

Giuseppe Capogrossi is an Italian graphic designer and painter born March 7, 1900 in Rome and died October 9, 1972 in the same city.
After finishing his studies in law in 1922, Capogrossi moved to Paris in 1927 where he visited studios and academies and got fmiliarized with the new artistic trends. In 1937, he left Paris and began working as a painter in the center of Italy, dedicating his work to portraying the rural life of the area.

Back in Rome, Capogrossi studied at the Artistic School of the city. In 1949 he founded the group called "Origin" with Alberto Burri, Mario Balloco and Ettore Colla and turned to Neo-cubism. Gradually, his work, which was originally influenced by Picasso, Modigliani and Renoir lost all semblance to Realism and by the 50s, his artistic production started to be exclusively abstract.

Guiseppe Capogrossi is part of the New Roman School of Painting and acquired over the years a major importance in the informal Italian landscapes. He created his own abstract pictorial language composed of abstract ornamental signs of horizontal and oval shapes.

He participated as a guest for several years in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, the Rome Quadrennial and at the price of Bergamo in 1939, 1940 and 1942. He also participated several times at the Documenta exhibition in Kassel and at the San Paolo Biennale in Brazil. In 1960, he exhibited at the 2nd International Biennial of Tokyo.