Renato Guttuso was born December 26, 1911 in Bagheria. Her father Joachim,professional surveyor but watercolourist for pleasure and his mother Giuseppina D'Amico, prefer to denounce him in Palermo January 2, 1912, after a dispute with the city because of their liberal ideas. The town is very important in the formation of the painter, because there, when he was young, he came into contact with the world of painting, as he himself says: "Among the watercolors of my father and the study of Quattrociocchi Domenico and the workshop of the painter Emilio Murdolo, took shape floats my way. I was six, seven, ten years ...". Bagheria is also important because it will continue to provide all his life an extraordinary repertoire of images and colors. As early as 1924, just thirteen years old, began to sign and date his paintings. They are small bars where he mostly copies the Sicilian landscapes of the nineteenth century. Among these must remember the Gulf of Palermo (1925), where the grain of the wood used to describe the waves of the sea. However her designs are more varied, french painters as in the case of the Angelus of Millet (1926), painted on a palette that still retains its original shape, and contemporary painters he could get the illustrations. As Carrà in Maritime pine ( 1929). In these years, also paints portraits like Graziella and the portrait of his father, the Cavalier Gioacchino Guttuso Fasulo (1930). In the following years he started attending the studio of the Futurist painter Pippo Rizzo and the creative community of Palermo. In 1928 he participated in Palermo in his first group exhibition. In 1931 he participates with two pictures at the Quadrennial National Italian Art in Rome and had the opportunity to see live the works of the greatest Italian artists who impressed him deeply. An exhibition of Guttuso and other Sicilian painters at the Gallery of Million in 1932, attracted strong interest in the artistic society of Milan. To live in Rome he do some restoration work to the Art Gallery of Perugia and the Galleria Borghese in Rome. During this time has a way to bind to artists such as Mario Mafai, Francesco Trombadori, Corrado Cagli, Pericles Fazzini, Mirko and Afro. Since 1929 collaborates with newspapers and magazines, and already the choice of his first subjects critics outline his decisions in favor of a painting involved. His first article on Picasso, written in 1933, due to the intervention of the fascist censorship and the suspension of cooperation with the newspaper l'Ora di Palermo. In 1934 he exhibited for the second time in Milan, the Galleria of Millions with the "Group 4", which he founded with John Barbera in Palermo, Nino Franchina and Lia Pasqualino Noto in open polemic with the primitivism of "Twentieth Century", then dominant. The exhibition was reviewed by Carra, in those time he was the most influential painter in Italy. Because of his military service spends 1935 in Milan, where he had the opportunity to forge friendships with great artists like Birolli, Sassu, Manzù, Fountana, which will divide the study, and intellectuals like the poet Salvatore Quasimodo, Raffaele de Grada, Elio Vittorini, the philosopher Antonio Banfi, Raffaele Carrieri, Edoardo Persico. Despite these friendships, which will be fundamental to the experience of political and cultural currents, milanese period is marked by a deep depression as witnessed by the poems written in those years, probably caused by the harsh economic conditions that oppress him in Milan. The 1937 - '39 are among the most important years of his life.He moved permanently to Rome, his studies, starting from square one in Melozzo da Forli, are often the focus of his pictorial compositions and become one of the liveliest and most interesting intellectual centers of cultural life in the capital. In these years, the friendships will be born with Alberto Moravia, Mario Antonello Trombadori and Alicata which will have a decisive role in its adherence to the Communist Party, in which you enroll in 1940. His first solo show in Rome was presented by the writer Nino Savarese.These are the years of the remarkable still lifes, Shooting in the country (dedicated to Federico Garcia Lorca), Escape from Etna, which will receive the award Bergamo, in this moment the most important prize for painting in Italy. In the same year he met Mimise Dotti who will be his companion for life. Works as a critic in Le Arti, First and The Wild, directed by Mino Maccari who devotes an entire issue to his designs (1939), continuing the work with commitment and vigor of a critic that will last a lifetime. In 1940 - '44 continues the extraordinary production artist paints nudes, landscapes, still lifes and realizes the Crucifixion (1940-41), his most famous paintings and one of the most significant of the twentieth century. He clarifies the meaning of the work: "This is a time of war. I want to paint the agony of Christ as the scene of today. ... As a symbol of all those who suffer indignity, imprisonment, torture for their ideas." The framework, presented at the Bergamo Prize in the fall of 1942, where it will receive the second prize, raises a major stumbling block and the Vatican forbids the monks to watch the work. In 1940 at the Teatro delle Arti in Rome, directed by Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Renato Guttuso makes his debut in the art of music, signing the sets and costumes for Histoire du Soldat. In 1943 he left Rome for political reasons and is an active anti-fascist resistance. On partisan struggle has left a poignant artistic testimony in the series of drawings made with inks of clandestine print shops entitled Gott Mitt Uns. In 1945 – '50 he's in Paris and holds a friendship with Pablo Picasso that will last a lifetime. In Italy along with other artists and friends including Birolli, Vedova, Marchiori, the gallerist Cairola founds the New Front movement of the Arts, a group of artists deeply involved politically with the aim of recovering the experiences that European artists because of Fascism were little known in Italy. In her paintings are social issues and daily life: pickmen of the rough stone, sulfur miners, seamstresses, demonstrations of peasants for the occupation of vacant lands. In '47 moved his studio at the Villa Massimo. In the same year he's in Venice with the sets and costumes for Lady Macbeth, Shostakovich, the first outing for Italy, is continuing with the work and collaboration with choreographer Aurele Millos. In 1950 in Warsaw gets the prize of the World Council for Peace, in the same year he held his first solo show in London. In Rome at the Teatro Satyrs will take care of the sets and costumes for "Mother Courage and Her Children" by Bertolt Brecht, in first for Italy. He's always present at the Venice Biennale with large pictures in the '52, the Battle of the Bridge of the Admiral, with Boogie Woogie in '54, in '56 with Spiaggia provoking discussions and debates. He married Mimise, Pablo Neruda, who has dedicated a heartfelt poem, will witness their wedding. In 1957 - '65 collaborated with the most important Italian and international magazines with writings of theory and art criticism, taking sides in the debate on realism.He paints the Discussion that will be bought by the Tate Gallery in London. Work for the illustration of the Divine Comedy, which will be published in '61 by Mondadori. Elio Vittorini wrote an important monograph on the painter and the friend Pasolini write an introduction for a book of drawings. In New York, Aca-Heller Gallery dedicates a major exhibition. The Pushkin Museum in Moscow dedicates a major retrospective in '61.The Stedelick Museum of Amsterdam dedicates an anthology of great success which will be also held at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Charleroi and in '63 we opened in Parma on a large retrospective exhibition of works by Roberto Longhi. Also in Parma, in the same year, will take care of sets and costumes for Verdi's Macbeth.In '65 elaborate the theme of newspaper reader and of newsstand that will take him to realize his only major sculpture. In 1965 - '71, he moved to the Palazzo del Grillo, where he continues to live and work until his death. In '66 realizes the great cycle of Autobiography , a series of paintings that will form the core of important anthologies hosted in various European museums. In this cycle Werner Haftmann devote a major monograph. Among the most beautiful and meaningful paintings Gioacchino Guttuso Land Surveyor (1966), a tribute to the father portrayed in the grass behind the theodolite. Co-organizer of theatrical scenes for the Contract of Eduardo de Filippo, his great friend. In '71 receives University of Palermo, an honorary degree and are dedicated to two major retrospectives: one at the Norman Palace in Palermo, with texts by Leonardo Sciascia, Franco Grasso and the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris . In 1972 he received the Lenin Prize and is a great exhibit at the Academy of Arts in Moscow. A major retrospective exhibition travels through Eastern Europe by tapping Prague, Bucharest, Bratislava, Budapest. He paints the big picture The Vucciria (1974) which gives the University of Palermo and in '76 paints the Greek Cafe (now the Ludwig Collection, Cologne.) In 1978 he illustrates Malavoglia of Verga and the Aeneid of Virgil in 1980. He was elected Senator from the lists of the Communist Party in the College of Sciacca. In 1973 Guttuso chooses an important collection of works made by him and other artists, which will form the basis for establishing Bagheria Civic Gallery. In 1981 - '87 Giuliano Briganti wrote the introduction to his exhibition in Rome on the cycle of Allegories of Melancholy and the Evening tour. The cultural center of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice dedicates a major retrospective exhibition in '82, curated by Maurizio Calvesi, Cesare Brandi and Vittorio Rubiu. In 1983 he painted a chapel of Sacromonte di Varese with the Flight into Egypt. Are published, edited by Henry Crispolti, the first three volumes of the general catalog of his paintings. In 1985 he undertook a monumental work, paint the whole time (more than 120 square meters of painting) the ceiling of the opera Vittorio Emanuele of Messina, representing the legend of Cola Pesce. In 1986 he painted a cycle of works devoted to the theme of the harem, culminating in the painting "In the room the women come and go ...", last great effort of the artist who will remain unfinished. On 18 January 1987 died leaving some works, among the most important, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome.Other works and a rich collection of documents has already entrusted to the museum that his hometown, Bagheria, has entitled to him. The Guttuso Museum, located in the eighteenth century Villa Cattolica, gathering the largest collection of books, paintings, drawings and graphic artist, and in the garden retains the great ark funeral dedicated to him by his friend Giacomo Manzu, where he rests . Immediately after the death is organized by the Museum of Bagheria Guttuso, edited by Maurizio Calvesi, with the help of the most important Italian critics, the exhibition "From the beginning to Gott mit Uns." After his death, his adopted son Fabio Carapezza Guttuso founded the Archives Guttuso, which destines the study of Piazza del Grillo, and integrates the museum's collection of Bagheria. Archives organized numerous exhibitions, among them two anthologies of the artist, one in Germany in '91 and one in '96 in London and Ferrara; completion, in collaboration with Henry Crispolti General Catalog Raisonné of Paintings by Renato Guttuso; and the tenth anniversary of the death, a major exhibition focusing on collaboration between Guttuso and musical theater, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Finally cured, for Rizzoli in 1999, a comprehensive monograph on the artist.
EXHIBITIONS
2005 Opere della Fondazione Francesco Pellin, FAM - Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta / Milano 2005 Capolavori dai Musei d' Europa, Palazzo Bricherasio / Torino 2005 Opere della Fondazione Francesco Pellin, DART Chiostro del Bramante / Roma 2005 "Bozzetti e figurini" Teatro dell' Opera / Roma 2005 "Il rapporto con le cose" MUMI - Museo Michetti / Francavilla Al Mare
2007 "Quando i sensi si fanno cielo" Pinacoteca Provinciale / Potenza 2007 "La passione della forma" Palazzo de Andrè / Ravenna 2007 "La passione della forma" Fondazione Tito Balestra / Longiano 2007 "La passione della forma" Palazzo Giustiniani / Roma 2007 "Immagini per parole. Renato Guttuso illustratore" Sala Veratti / Varese 2007 "Eros e Thanatos" Galleria La Rocca / Palermo
2009 "Dieci grandi Maestro di ieri e di oggi" - 6° Senso Art Gallery, Roma
2009 "Militante" Pinacoteca Civica - Palazzo Gavotti / Savona
2010 "Passione e Realtà" Fondazione Magnani Rocca / Traversetolo
2011 "Brera mai vista" Pinacoteca di Brera / Milano 2011 "Gott Mit Uns" Museo del Territorio - Casa Pezzolla / Alberobello 2011 Guttuso 1911-2011 Galleria di Bella / Palermo 2011 "Nel centenario della nascita" Guastalla Centroarte / Livorno 2011 Galleria Il Catalogo / Salerno