Natale Filannino Biography
Born in Reggio Calabria where he attended the Industrial Institute and the Art Institute; in 1943 he took part in the partisan struggle and then, in 1947, he moved to Florence to complete his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. He held the chair of Figure Drawing at the State Art School of Florence. From the 1950s he matured his artistic commitment in the Florentine environment first, then in the realist and expressionist context, he came into contact with Classical Abstractionism and began to actively participate in the first artistic exhibitions such as: in 1955 in Florence, in the Saletta del Fiorino; in 1956 in Livorno, at the Casa della Cultura; in 1958 in Florence, at the Academy of Drawing Arts. In 1964 he founded, together with Vinicio Berti, Giampiero Avanzini, Nadia Benelli, Bruno Pecchioli and Liberia Pini, the Gruppo Segno Rosso, which brought together the generation of dissident Florentine artists, committed to the abstract renewal of contemporary artistic language. From this first collective experience, in 1970, the Studio d'Arte Il Moro was founded by Mauro Bini and Bruno Pecchioli which, since 1971 has also included Natale Filannino among its founders who, in recent years, has participated in all the events promoted by collective, see in 1972 in Florence, the exhibition of the twenty serigraphs collected in the Birth of a constructive morphology folder; in Basel, the Internationale Kunstmesse Art 3'72 exhibition; and in the same year he exhibited in Florence with his wife Nadia Benelli at the Verifica exhibition. As a balance of the experience of this last exhibition, in 1973 Filannino exhibited together with his companions in the Mostra alla Strozzina (Palazzo Strozzi, Florence) entitled Birth of a constructive morphology. For the occasion, the Manifesto of the same name was released, a true declaration of poetics of the group. Since the mid-seventies, the artist has been busy exhibiting in numerous foreign countries such as Moscow, Prague, Sofia, Budapest, Vienna, etc., in 1977, sent by the Yugoslav government, he presented an important anthological exhibition in Dubrovnick. He has set up around sixty personal exhibitions throughout Italy and received numerous awards, including: 1st Fasola Prize Accademia Nazionale S. Luca, Rome 1958; 1st Drawing Prize, Florence 1961; S. Stefano National Prize, Novara 1974.
