Giovanni Nei Pasinetti Biography
Giovanni Nei Pasinetti, son of an excellent painter, was born in Venice on 2 December 1894. His first contacts with the painting studios of A.Pomi and AMCrepez date back to 1912: in 1913 he began to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where he had Gugliemo Ciardi, Ettore Tito and Emanuele Brugnoli as teachers. After a stay in Monaco he was admitted, at only 18 years old, with four paintings and an aquatint, to the most famous exhibition in Cà Pesaro, that of 1913, alongside Boccioni and Gino Rossi. Called to arms in 1915, he completed three years of war in the Pontieri Engineer Corps, earning three medals for valor. In 1919 he completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and resumed exhibiting at Cà Pesaro, participating uninterruptedly in exhibitions from 1919 to 1931, obtaining a personal exhibition in 1923 and becoming one of the protagonists of the extraordinary Capesarina season which between 1913 and 1930 established modern art in Venice. He formed a deep friendship with Nino Barbantini, with Cesare Laurenti, with Pio Semeghini, establishing himself among the leading artists of the time, so that he was also chosen to be part of commissions and juries in art events. From 1922 to 1934 he participated continuously in the Venice Biennale: he also exhibited at the "National" in Turin, Naples, Milan, Vicenza, Verona, at the Barcelona International Exhibition, at the International Exhibition of Sacred Art in Padua and in numerous group and personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad. Founding member of the Venetian Artistic Club, in 1930 he abandoned painting to continue his father's activity of furnishing and restoring monumental buildings of villas and palaces. In 1941 he was called up to arms and sent to Africa where he was taken prisoner. He remained for three years in a concentration camp in America, where he held painting courses for prisoners. Having returned to Italy, he resumed work but in 1965 the attractive force of painting prevailed and, driven by Barbantini, he took up the brush again. In 1969 he exhibited forty-seven paintings and thirty etchings from the period 1912/1930 and twenty-six paintings from 1965 onwards in an anthological exhibition at the Bevilacqua La Masa. In 1972 his works were chosen for the Burano Prize. He will continue to paint and exhibit until his death in 1979.
