Giovanbattista De Andreis Biography
Giovanni Battista De Andreis (Badalucco, 6 April 1938) is an Italian painter and engraver. He was defined by Maurice Henry as one of the most significant contemporary artists. During the mid-1950s, in addition to Emilio Scanavino, his teacher, he became friends with Aurelio Caminati, Giannetto Fieschi and Roberto Bertagnin. In 1955, his painting La sera, exhibited at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, was purchased by the historian Paolo Emilio Taviani (Taviani a Palazzo Ducale: Il Secolo XIX 20 September 1955). In 1958, as soon as he graduated, he moved to Milan where, thanks to Scanavino, he met the major artists of the Milanese avant-garde: Fontana and the "spatial" group. With Bruno Munari and Giò Rossi he created Linea, an animated film for Snia Viscosa. His first works - landscapes and portraits - were first indebted to Cézanne and then to post-cubism and action painting. In 1956 he won the "Pennello d'oro" award in Cervo from the jury chaired by Francesco Menzio. Starting from the sixties, De Andreis developed his own language, inspired by surrealism, metaphysical painting, and imaginary authors such as ETA Hoffmann and J. Potocki, with stylistic choices according to which "the artist's task is to move the boundaries of the truly pictorial.” In 1964, having moved to the French Riviera at Cap Ferrat for a year, the portrait of Clemens Spada Gemelli introduced him to Milanese collecting. The first exhibition in Milan, in 1966, increased his notoriety, together with a succession of "La Notte 1967" awards and the "Panizza 1967" award, with juries chaired by Bruno Cassinari. Followed by exhibitions in Milan, Turin, Brussels and Amsterdam. The suite of etchings "The Apparitions" (1971) bears his name nationally. His participation in the exhibitions in Krakow, Buenos Ayres, Katowice and Milan, elected him «Recommended Artist of 1978» on the Bolaffi della Grafica. His work Faustina dell'Inviolata, a suite of erotic etchings, was published by Play Boy. He creates the etching Tortura for "Coro" by Luciano Berio. From 1984 to 1996 he has solo exhibitions in Rome, Milan, Palermo, Catania, Monte Segale, Nardò, Imperia, Diano Castello. Added to those of the Maison de la Culture Woluwé-Saint-Pierre in Brussels, Galleria Il Magnifico in Chianciano, (paired with Ibrahim Kodra), and Museo del Sannio in Benevento. In 2005, for the 500th anniversary of the death of Christopher Columbus, the National Committee for Colombian Celebrations commissioned him to paint a portrait of the navigator. Work also created in etching. In 2006 he married Stefania Massaccesi, his student and partner since 1990. In 2008, Gli Displacements of the Eye 1968-2008, a large anthology at the Villa Faravelli museum in Imperia, exhibition "From Modigliani to Warhol in Loreto. In 2009 he received the Prize in Genoa Regionale Ligure 2009 for his career. In 2010 he was commissioned to etch the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Autostrada dei Fiori.