Vitale Petrus Biography
Petrus Vitale. Kiew (Ukraine), 1934 - Milan, 1984. Painter, designer, graphic designer. He graduated from the Venice Academy under the guidance of Saetti. He made his debut in 1958 in a group show at Bevilacqua La Masa, receiving an award. Since 1959, the year of his first solo exhibition at Bevilacqua La Masa, he has participated in national and international exhibitions. He obtained various mentions and prizes in collective exhibitions, including the 1st prize at the Bevilacqua La Masa Collective in 1960, and the 2nd prize at the Premio Suzzara in 1963. Among the numerous solo exhibitions, we remember the exhibition at the Galleria Il Traghetto in Venice in 1961 ; at the La Bottega Gallery in Ravenna in 1966; at the Ciovasso Gallery in Milan in 1971. In 1985 a retrospective was held at the I Liceo Artistico Statale in Milan. Fundamental for his artistic evolution was his move to Sesto San Giovanni in 1965: in the Milanese environment he linked up with numerous other young artists, such as Lino Marzulli, Fabrizio Merisi, Dimitri and Pietro Plescan, Enrico Castellani and others, together with whom he took part to the political and social struggles of the time. Having started, at the end of the 1950s, from a certain Saetti-like geometricism through which he depicted scenes of daily life, in the Milanese years he arrived at a particular "Chagallian culture", characterized by an expressionist-style realism, however rich in symbolic references. Since the early 1970s his greatest trials have revolved around the horrors of war and the celebration of resistance; the style of these years is full of expressive violence and dynamic complexity. Subsequently, the artist recovers Italian myths in a grotesque key, with references to Renaissance and mannerist art. The last major subject addressed before his premature death - which therefore remained in the planning phase - was the Friuli earthquake.
