Guido La Regina Biography
Guido La Regina was born in Naples in 1909 and attended technical schools. In 1923 he enrolled at the art institute, where he studied engraving with L. Balestrieri. In 1926 he made two woodcuts for S. Di Giacomo's novel Pesci fuor d'acqua and exhibited some engravings at the Biennale of decorative arts in Monza. In 1929 and 1931 he went to Paris and Germany to deepen his knowledge of Cubist research, German Expressionism and the use of color. In 1931 he graduated, but did not join the fascist fine arts union.
Not being able to participate in official art exhibitions, he dedicated himself to graphics, setting up an exhibition of woodcuts at the Press Club and publishing two collections of engravings. In 1940, recalled to arms, he took part in war operations in North Africa. In 1942 he was sent as a war correspondent to the command of the 2nd Army stationed in Sušak, near Rijeka. Before the end of the conflict, he set up an exhibition in Abbazia and executed two altarpieces for the church of S. Maria Annunziata with S. Benedetto and S. Rita.
In 1946 he moved to Rome, where he organized the painters and sculptors union adhering to the CGIL. In 1947, as secretary, he set up the 1st Exhibition of the Provincial Union of Figurative Arts in the palace in Venice. However, he immediately resigned from his position to dedicate himself solely to artistic research. He also cultivated sculpture, jewelry design and ceramic manufacturing, obtaining good recognition at the II Deruta Majolica Exhibition.
In his painting, he developed a stronger compositional and chromatic construction, suggested by the vision of M. Rothko's works and then matured through contacts with the Middle East. He used overlapping layers of pigment or the use of stucco and sand to obtain plastic effects on his canvases. Guido La Regina died in 1995.
