Sineo Gemignani Biography
Sineo Gemignani was born in Livorno in 1917. He studied at the Istituto Statale d'Arte di Porta Romana in Florence, where he specialized in decorative mural painting. In 1937 he participated in the Milan Triennale. Between 1947 and 1949 he was active in Empoli and Milan. In 1952 he completed a large frieze for the Florence Goods Exchange; in 1953 he held his first solo exhibition at the FLOG Gallery in Florence, followed by another the following year at the La Colonna Gallery in Milan. An important retrospective was dedicated to him in 1995 by the Municipality of Empoli and hosted at the Augustinian Convent. His personal technique involves the creation of frescoes, then torn and placed on wood. Favorite theme is the daily life of the peasant and worker world; his realist streak sometimes takes on expressionist tones, especially in the treatment of colour, which is particularly lively and intense. In the Seventies, themes of religious or civil commitment and still lifes became the dominant subjects in his painting; a keen interest in contemporaneity is always present in his production, sometimes treated with an ironic attitude, sometimes with good-natured participation. Among the various works, we highlight the numerous frescoes and mosaics, the stained glass windows and the theatrical sets. Bibl.: Gemignani, c. by M. de Micheli, Milan, Galleria La Colonna, 1954; Sineo, Empoli, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 1974; Sineo Gemignani, c. by P. Matteucci, Empoli, Augustinian Convent, 1995.
