Marcello Guasti Biography
Marcello Guasti (Florence, 17 November 1924 – Bagno a Ripoli, 11 January 2019) was an Italian sculptor and engraver. He exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1948 and 1956; he participated in the Rome Quadrennial in 1951-52, 1965-66 and 1973. He was married to the artist Artemisia Viscoli. Active mainly in Tuscany, starting from the early 1940s and until the beginning of the following decade he dedicated himself to black and white painting and woodcuts: recurring subjects were those linked to work along the banks of the Arno, such as boats and sandmakers. , represented with an archaic figurative style, close to the Egyptian or Etruscan one, characteristics then taken up in the first sculptures, dating back to the early fifties and often made of wood. From the end of the decade sculpture took over painting and engraving. It was decidedly oriented towards informal, abstract and decorative research. The past as a painter re-emerged in the use of color and wood was replaced by new materials, combined according to peculiar combinations (such as lead and antimony, cement and bronze). By the seventies, Guasti's sculptural production had now stabilized on geometric research, but characterized by the recurrence of circular and spherical structures, while starting from the following decade a certain aspiration to monumentality took shape, rendered through squared forms, developed vertically and horizontally. times contrasted with the use of natural elements such as stones and boulders. Guasti is also remembered for the Monument to the three carabinieri in Fiesole, the Monument to the fallen at Pian d'Albero in Florence and for the works placed along a path within the Sterpaia Park. In Pescia in Tuscany we find the 1961 monument entitled "The 5 elementary classes". (Link to the website of the Municipality of Pescia) With his wife, Artemisia Viscoli, he created The garden of stars, a bas-relief presented at the Scandicci fair as a project for Piazza Matteotti and Piazza Piave. He created Signál (1967) in Bohemian sandstone, in Hořice, Czech Republic, and Equi librio (1973) in Westphalian dolomite, in Soest, Germany. His works are preserved in the Aroldo Bonzagni Gallery of Modern Art (Cento), the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the Uffizi Galleries (Florence), the Museo Novecento (Florence), the Museum of Contemporary and 20th Century Art (Monsummano Terme ), the Municipality of Fiesole, and other collections.
