Costantino Di Renzo Biography
Costantino Di Renzo was born in Chieti in 1946. He began his artistic career in 1966. From the early years of his profession as a painter, he carried out careful research on the art of the past, in particular on the painting of the Dutch artist Vermeer, developing the his images in a conceptual analysis. In 1974 he joined the hyperrealist movement, exhibiting his works at the Galleria Margutta in Pescara (1976) and at the Galleria Il Modulo in Salerno (1977). In 1978 he went to the United States to deepen his knowledge of hyperrealism and studied with artists such as Richard Estes, Don Eddy and Chuck Close. Since 1980 he has dedicated himself to sculpture, exhibiting in 1982 at the Galleria Cesare Manzo in Pescara and at the Galleria Centro sei in Bari. The sculptures he created were veiled figures made of fibreglass, figures that invaded the exhibition space in a sort of installation. In 1982 he participated with three large sculptures at the Bari International Fair among the artists invited to the "youth space". Other sculptural works were exhibited at the Bologna International Fair and in 1983 at the Basel International Fair. From 1980 to 1984 the artist also worked on theatrical scenography, collaborating with the Cooperativa Alta theater company on the scenographic staging of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Shakespeare, "Lazzarina tra i Knives" by Rosso di San Secondo, "La Moscheta" by Ruzante, and with the theater company of Reggio Calabria in "Socrates in war" by Mario Moretti. In 1985 he returned to painting and, invited by the Australian artist Nora Heysen, went to Sydney and, during a year of residency, executed a series of works over the four seasons. The works take on a new physiognomy. Perhaps influenced by the fantastic, almost unreal Australian nature, the artist created twelve paintings on the months of the year and a gigantic 3 by 5 meter work representing the four seasons, works which he exhibited at the Maori Gallery in Sydney. Returning to Italy, he began to paint seven large canvases dedicated to the moon, which he exhibited at the Fraticelli Gallery in Rome in 1989, thus coming into contact with the artists of hyper-mannerist painting. In 1992, following the interest of the Sakamoto Gallery in Osaka, an important exhibition was inaugurated in Japan, where he exhibited 36 large-format works. In the same year, despite the temptations of the market, he decided to leave the city of Rome, where he had lived and worked since 1986, and after purchasing a house in the countryside near his hometown, he began, in total isolation, an in-depth study of the Olysses by Homer, creating a series of works in a sort of symbiosis between painting and literature. Also in this case his research was not based on a simple illustration of Ulysses' journey from Troy to Ithaca, but starting from Tiresias' prophecy, he carried out a careful analysis of the Homeric hero's departure from his island after his condemnation. to exile. In 2003 his painting, although still linked to the theme of the ancient Mediterranean myth, is fragmented into irregular geometries, enriched by plastic elements that continue the narrative beyond the surface of the painting itself. The artist changes and overturns the theme, entering a new phase. His painting is imbued with current events, delving into the hidden meanders of the mind, wearing the clothes of the contemporary world, delving into human baseness, madness, perversion and the weakness of current society.
