Paolo De Poli Biography
Paolo De Poli (Altichiero, 1 August 1905 – Padua, 21 September 1996) was an Italian artist. He is known for his works in fired enamel on metal. After a youthful training in the techniques of drawing and embossing on metal, which took place at the Pietro Selvatico art school in Padua, and in the techniques of oil painting which took place in the studio of the Trentino painters in Verona, he began a career as a painter in portraits and landscapes. In 1926, with an oil painting, he participated for the first time in the XV Venice Biennale. Over time, through travels and visits to art and archaeological museums, he was fascinated by the traditional and ancient art of enamel on metal, bringing it to very high levels of innovation. Starting in the 1930s, he experimented with small, refined objects of many shapes and bright colors in the field of decorative arts. He was a collaborator of Gio Ponti, in the creation of furniture and decorative panels (in the 1940s) and design and sculpture objects on Animal themes (in the 1950s). In addition to a vast production of vases, bowls, trays, plates, cups, handles and plaques in enamelled copper, he also worked on large decorative panels, intended for the interiors of ships and ocean liners, hotels, universities, public buildings and collectors' houses. in Italy and abroad. He was also interested in sacred art, proposing altarpieces and cycles of panels on the theme of the Via Crucis, preserved in churches in Padua, Abano Terme and Bergamo. A continuous search for artistic experimentation, verified in hundreds of different works, with intense shades or refined shades of color, all designed, shaped and prepared in his artisan laboratory in Padua, have been presented in major international events: from universal exhibitions in Brussels in 1935, in Paris in 1937, in New York in 1939 and in hundreds of exhibitions or art salons, held in various countries around the world as part of the manifestations of the Italian taste of the so-called Made in Italy. He participated 14 times in the Venice Biennale and 10 times in the Milan Triennale. As happened with the modern production of Murano glass or Faenza ceramics, many modern works in enamel on copper, both wall panels and design objects, have been exported outside Italy and are today included in the permanent collections of most important museums of decorative arts and design in the world. Over the course of his sixty-year career he has always been involved in the promotion and protection of the artistic and cultural heritage and artistic professions with trade associations and commissions, an expression of the world of craftsmanship. From 1960 to 1973 he served as a member of the board of directors of the Milan Triennale. In 1970 he was nominated Cavaliere del Lavoro. An award dedicated to Paolo De Poli, in favor of an innovative work in the field of decorative arts and design, is awarded every year as part of the Padua Fair events. The personal archive of the artist's drawings, prototypes and correspondence is preserved in the Project Archive of the IUAV University of Venice.
