Alberto Sughi

Alberto Sughi was born in Cesena in 1928. His early works
date from 1943–1944 and have clear references to Rosai, Fattori and
above all Lorenzo Viani. The artist spent 1946 in Turin, and then
lived in Rome between 1948 and 1951. 

In 1954 he exhibited at the
Galleria del Pincio in Rome alongside Corrado Cagli and Marcello
Muccini; two years later he had a first solo show at the same gallery,
followed by a second solo show a year later which revealed his
personality and poetic world: he had an obvious interest in social
commentary, especially in terms of the subtle and persistent existential
melancholy caused by life in a big city. 

The themes of these works were repeated in
two shows in 1958, the first at the Galleria Bergamini in Milan, and
then again in Rome at the Galleria Odyssia. These paintings depict the
interiors of cinemas, bars, and waiting rooms, in addition to pin-ball
machine players. In 1959 Sughi participated in the Rome
Quadrennial with a wall depicting melancholy reaching fever pitch,
especially in terms of the difficulty of interpersonal communication in
the urban context. His works are darker and the story he tells takes on a
cold and forbidding quality. Alberto Sughi died in Bologna on 31 March 2012.