Pino Ponti Biography
Pino Ponti (Venice, 12 April 1905 – Milan, June 1999) was an Italian painter. He obtained a diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in the same city where he held his first personal exhibition curated by the Venetian Region, in 1930. Already in 1927, however, with the painting "The Lightning in the Power Plant" which represented the lightning of fascism on the world of work, had his first problems with the regime. In 1929 he was invited with two works to a large Italian 20th century exhibition in which Giorgio de Chirico, Filippo de Pisis, Casorati, Manzù and Renato Birolli participated. Already in 1929 the Modern Art Galleries of Milan and Venice purchased four works by the twenty-four-year-old artist. In 1931 he moved permanently to Milan where the famous critic Raffaello Giolli, a man of great sensitivity and a forerunner of ideas, together with Edoardo Persico, an illustrious art scholar, organized the first Milanese personal exhibition at the Galleria del Poligono. That was the period in which Persico gathered around himself and encouraged the youngest and most promising elements of contemporary art: Birolli, Dal Bon, Manzù, Spilimbergo, Sassu and others. That was the period of the “Moka d'Or” coffee, a training ground for animated intellectual discussions and artistic research. In 1933 he joined the editorial staff of the magazine "Orpheus" with Luciano Anceschi, Enzo Paci, Assaiaz, Marchetti and others. Ponti's famous drawings appeared in this magazine, which were aimed at the regime in a satirical-grotesque spirit. The first meeting of the young Renato Guttuso with Ponti dates back to that period while he was in Birolli's company. In 1934 he held a personal exhibition at the Tre Arti Gallery. On that occasion he had his second major clash with the regime with the famous work "The Liberal Walk". This work was confiscated and Pino Ponti was sentenced to two months in prison. He was one of the initiators of Corrente's artistic orientations even without ever becoming part of the group, since he did not share its organic nature. In 1943-44, while he was in Pandino where he was hiding together with Birolli, the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Milan first and then the Bergamini Gallery organized three personal exhibitions for him. During those years he worked with Birolli for the Resistance and the common ideals which made this meeting particularly fertile in clarifications, definitive orientations and conscious choices. That was the period in which Pino Ponti was following the post-cubist orientation with particular accentuations of social themes, spatial composition, severe or rhythmic, marked in counterpoint with chaste color of matter, but violent in the contrast of relationships. After the war he returned to Milan where in 1946 and 1947 he held two personal exhibitions at the Bergamini Gallery. In 1950 his solo show was held at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan and at the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice and he participated in the Venice Biennale. In 1953 the La Colonna Gallery in Milan organized a large exhibition of social painting (factory period) and democratic commitment for him. In 1957 the Schettini Gallery in New York organized the exhibition that marked the definitive transition from Pino Ponti's post-cubism to the new figuration. From this moment the vision strengthens and Pino Ponti's dialogue with everything that surrounds him becomes more intense as he definitively frees himself from old diaphragms of the early twentieth century. In 1953-54 Pino Ponti had his first meetings with Salvatore Quasimodo and Beniamino Joppolo. The poet dedicated some verses to his paintings including the most famous "The mother of the hanged man on the telephone pole". He died in Milan in 1999.
