Ugo Giannattasio Biography
Ugo Giannattasio was born in Rome in 1888 and spent his childhood and adolescence with his mother in Rome. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts and the Scuola Libera del Nudo, where he became friends with G. Severini. In 1906 he moved to Paris, driven by interest in the new artistic trends of the time, such as Fauvism and Cubism. One of his well-known paintings, Self-Portrait in Oil, dates back to 1909, which aligns with expressionist approaches. In Paris he frequented the artists who gathered at the Closerie des Lilas (Evangelists), and it was there that in 1911 he found himself with Severini, accompanied by FT Marinetti. Meanwhile, Futurism had come to the attention of Parisian artistic circles with the publication of the first manifesto in Le Figaro in 1909. Giannattasio joined the Futurist group shortly afterwards, as evidenced by his correspondence with Severini and Marinetti. His position within the futurist group appears to be strongly compromised by the violent opposition of Carrà and Boccioni, who do their utmost to exclude him from the group's activities. In 1912 he participated for the first time in the Salon des Indépendants with the painting Le vent de la nuit, which, like many other works, was destroyed during the First World War. In 1913 he was again present at the Salon des Indépendants with a painting entitled Le tourniquet du café de Paris. The painting shows an interest in Cubism in the use of a spare but rigorous language, combined with a synthesis of dynamic simultaneity dear to the Futurists. Giannattasio's painting, in fact, is certainly imbued with great concreteness which will express itself with original results, even in areas not strictly linked to painting. The exhibition activity together with the Futurists was quite intense in the years immediately preceding the First World War: in 1913 and 1914, together with other members of the group, he was invited to exhibit in Berlin, at the first German Autumn Salon, and then at the Der Sturm gallery , which dedicated an exhibition to French avant-garde painting. In the first half of the 1920s his activity was very intense and extremely diversified. Giannattasio's painting develops around the central themes of futurism. Between 1920 and 1923, like other futurists, Giannattasio founded an art house in Rome, dedicating himself to applied arts and futurist furniture. After the second half of the 1920s, the artist had to retreat even further from the scene: in fact, no works from this period are known. In 1946 Giannattasio moved to Turin, where he experienced a sort of second artistic youth characterized by a strong propensity towards non-representation, close in some ways to contemporary informal trends. However, his painting in recent years, although inspired by futurist experiences, frees itself from that formalism and resolves itself into an essential and meditative abstraction, with strong poetic accents, especially in the chromatic intensity. The inventiveness that had characterized the artist's first period, however, seems to give way to the meditative and melancholic atmosphere of these canvases. The artist died in Turin on 7 June 1958.
