Sandro Parmeggiani Biography
Sandro Parmeggiani was born in Milan in 1910, to a family originally from Cento. After attending the Scientific High School of Pavia, he decided to dedicate himself to painting and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera and at the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic of Milan at the same time. Initially, he had wanted to become an aeronautical engineer, but after giving up this dream, he trained as a painter in the studio of the Milanese Domenico Baranelli.
During the Second World War, Parmeggiani was active in Renazzo (Fe) as a painter of still lifes and rural landscapes. After the war, he returned to Milan and founded, together with Walter Poizzi, the famous "Gatto Nero" group. He was culturally attentive to Italian and foreign artistic movements and, after having passed through Post-Impressionism and Neo-Cubism, he accentuated the Matissian-style Fauve-Expressionist trend.
In the Seventies, the signs and colors of abstract art became the most suitable means to express his rich interiority. Parmeggiani was also known as a refined and original ex-libris executor. He has participated in national and international exhibitions, such as the Quadrennial of Art in Rome, the Biennale of Milan, Europe of engraving, the Ex Libris of Lugano, the Biennale of Sacred Art '69-71 and the anthological exhibition at the Palazzo del Turismo in Milan. He has held personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad.
In 1992, he organized an anthology at the Gallarate Museum, while the Cassa di Risparmio di Cento published a rich monograph edited by Maria Censi. In 1995, the Sandro Parmeggiani Museum of Modern Art was born in Renazzo di Cento. The artist died in Milan in 2003. His career and his works marked the history of Italian art of the 20th century.
