Alfredo Beltrame Biography
Alfredo Beltrame was a painter of Friulian origin, born in 1901 in Leipzig. In 1915 he returned to Italy with his family and settled in Milan. In 1917 he began his artistic studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and, under the guidance of Ambrogio Alciati, completed his painting courses in 1923, achieving first prize. In 1924 he exhibited at the "Feminine Portrait" exhibition at the Villa Reale in Monza. The following year he was selected by the Commission of the Academy of Milan for the "National Artistic Scholarship Competition of Rome". In the same year he exhibited for the first time at the Brera National Biennale, and subsequently participated in the major regional and national exhibitions in Milan, Rome and Venice. His first solo exhibition was held in 1938 at the Parisian gallery "Pe'tride's", and the success was such that the doors of the prestigious "Salon des Tuileries" opened for Beltrame. From 1952 to 1968 he created decorations on the ocean liners "Andrea Doria" and "Leonardo Da Vinci", murals and mosaics in public buildings and some stained glass windows of Sacred Art. In 1969 he was awarded the "Giovanni Eigenmann" prize. After his confident debut characterized by a classical representation that shows an exciting and robust ability, Beltrame understands the expressive anguish of academism and turns with confidence and decision towards the fruitful paths of the avant-gardes, which the artist encounters in his travels across Europe. It is above all during his long stays in Paris that he absorbed for the first time the lesson of Cézanne, who made color the only tool for the construction of forms, thus restoring to the bodies of things, environments and figures that tonal sound that transfigures volumes. in poetic song. But Beltrame does not dwell on the importance of the chromatic construction of his compositions. He feels the urgency that the subjects of his work have greater prominence than the pleasantness of their appearance. Beltrame wants everything to release the poetic sense of existence. He understands how the lesson of the avant-garde (the expressionism of the Fauves with some traces of synthetic cubism) can take on that overpowering chromatic exultation capable of evoking the pulsating life beneath the apparent surface of everything portrayed. And it is here that Beltrame's mastery is confident and persuasive, showing us the capacity for the harmonious coexistence of saturated and decisive tones that the artist calmly governs, accompanying us on the paths of seduction that painting can offer us, when we give it the time to open the his song. Here then is the liveliness of the landscapes that marry the exuberance of nature, just as in the still lifes the local tone of the objects resonates alive, all to show the gentle aspect of a pictorial celebration. He died in Milan in 1996.
