Raimondo Lorenzetti Biography
Raimondo Lorenzetti was born in Caseleone, a large village between Verona and Ostiglia immersed in the countryside of the Great Veronese Valleys, on 25 August 1948. As a young man he worked as an apprentice in a carpenter's workshop. Her favorite pastime consists of drawing, also stimulated by her mother, with whom she maintains - following a severe form of post-partum depression - a difficult relationship marked by protective anxieties and unpredictable rejections. Having become a skilled wood carver, in 1970 he began his own activity as a craftsman and from this moment his approach to painting began, timidly, by copying reproductions, for professional needs, of famous ancient paintings. In the early 1980s, through Antonio Zanchetta who worked to spread his friend's painting, he met the famous Aligi Sassu who sensed the originality of Lorenzetti's pictorial world and appreciated it enough to propose a change of work. From 1984 his exhibition activity was interrupted for a decade due to a serious illness of the mother whom he had to look after. In 1995, after the death of his mother, Lorenzetti resumed painting intensely, also returning to exhibit in various galleries throughout Italy with around fifteen exhibitions until 2001. In 2002 Lorenzetti exhibited in the exhibition "Il Po in controluce" in Rovigo, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi and the same year in the exhibition “Padano Surrealism” in Piacenza (again curated by Sgarbi) and “Fantastic painting in Italy from De Chirico to Leonor Fini” at the Revoltella Museum in Trieste. In 2007 his works were exhibited in Budapest in the “Visionari” exhibition, in 2009 the “Art, genius and folly” exhibition in Siena (curated by Sgarbi) and the following year he exhibited at the Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto. Also in 2010 the artist participated in two awards: Archer Award in Sardinia and Sulmona Award in the city of Sulmona. Lorenzetti's participation in the Venice Biennale dates back to 2011, in 2012 he exhibited at the Museo della Follia in Matera and in 2013 he participated in the exhibition "Water, light, stone" in Fiuggi. Numerous critics have written about him, including Emilio Tadini, Renzo Biason, Vittorio Sgarbi, Paolo Rizzi, Luca Beatrice.
