Ugo Celada Da Virgilio Biography
Ugo Celada - Art name: Ugo Celada da Virgilio (Cerese - in the hamlet of Borgo Virgilio), 25 May 1895 – Varese, 26 January 1995) was an Italian painter. Born in Cerese, in the Mantua area. Noted from a very young age for his talent in drawing, he attended the local School of Arts and Crafts and, thanks to a scholarship, managed to enroll at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a pupil of the painter Cesare Tallone. Exhibiting in 1920 at the Venice Biennale, he took the stage name of Ugo Celada from Virgilio. He will return three more times, in 1924, 1926 and 1936 to the Venetian exhibition. Among other things, in 1926 he will be celebrated by the famous French painter and critic Émile Bernard, the then President of the Jury, - discoverer of Cezanne and Van Gogh - as the greatest Italian author. Having approached the twentieth century, he distanced himself from it after a short time, shifting his activity and his interest to research that places him halfway between Magical Realism and New Objectivity, becoming one of the greatest exponents of figurative painting and precisionism, characterizing himself for a completely anomalous and personal style, which in some ways brings him closer to the work of Cagnaccio di San Pietro and Antonio Donghi and to the contemporary Sciltian. Marginalized by fascism, after a controversy with twentieth-century art, he effectively lived in isolation, painting portraits of the Milanese nobility and bourgeoisie until his death. Flavio Caroli, in 1985 edited the introduction in the catalog of the permanent exhibition in Virgilio (MN), at its inauguration, with a critical essay where among other things we read: (...) I will not deny that Celada falls sometimes in a realism that is too mechanical and stereotyped. But when I think about the mysterious complexity of his very long journey; when I think of the secret exchanges with the culture of the twenties or thirties, in a time when Italian painting was important for all of Europe; when I think that Celada surpasses in quality all its potential, highly valued German and French emulators; when I think of the treasures of artistic-craft knowledge found in his pheasants or his pewters; when I think of the exquisite chimes of her scarlet curtains on her snow-white pillows; when I think of the pulsation of the pubic triangles, and the desire they still know how to communicate to us; when I think of all this, I understand that Celada, as De Chirico said of Morandi - "executes the painting of the good artisans of Europe". When I think about all this, I conclude that our artist deserves to be studied and appreciated as many great and small masters of the past are done. Because it is often deeper than them; more marked by the trappings of vocation; more dazzling (....) Flavio Caroli, 1985......(see the complete text also in the "Ugo Celada da Virgilio" catalog edited by Jandi Sapi editors (1997) His works are found in the National Gallery of 'Modern and Contemporary Art of Rome. The municipality of Borgo Virgilio has dedicated a museum to him.
