Mauro Capitani Biography
Mauro Capitani (1949 - ) was born in San Giovanni Valdarno, in the province of Arezzo, in 1949. He studied scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. After completing his studies, a few years later he began teaching painting at the art institute and later art history. He was formed in the Florentine artistic environment, where he had already distinguished himself since the early Seventies. In 1978 he met Mino Maccari from whom he learned the art of engraving and the same year he presented it in the catalog of his solo exhibition at the Omiccioli Gallery in via Margutta. Then his friendship with Ernesto Treccani, Breddo, Brindisi and Berti led him to adhere to the values of the twentieth century with a rereading of strong chromatic impact of expressionist origin. In the early seventies, a neorealism close to the lesson of Guttuso and Treccani operated, with dense material and strong colours; in the following decade he adhered to cultured painting, recovering a classical style painting with mythological themes, derived from his profound Renaissance knowledge: this period ends with the "Othello" cycle, which is followed by the theme of "Fairy Tales". The subjects of his production are figures, beaches, fishermen, bestiaries, landscapes, mythological and literary subjects, nudes, Tarot cards, religious works including large wall dimensions.
In 2017 he celebrates his fifty years of painting since his first solo exhibition (1967) with a major exhibition in Florence in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, accompanied by the second monographic volume, edited by Giammarco Puntelli. In 2013 one of his works illustrated the cover of the Catalog of Modern Art, n. 49. The establishment of the Mauro and Nuccia Capitani Foundation is currently underway.
