Raf Biography
RAF born RAFFAELE Dragani (1951 - ) is an artist who has worked since the sixties: he progressively arrived at abstraction starting from a figuration (still lifes, landscapes and portraits) with the representation of faithful and accurate images very close to the nineteenth-century stylistic features. Influenced by Andy Warhol's figuration, but also by Action Painting and Abstract Expressionism, he made color one of his foundations. He decided to become an artist at a very young age, in the sixties, much to the disapproval of his parents; again in the sixties, in Vasto (Chieti) he began to study art and create his first figurative compositions following the teachings of a twentieth-century master, a pupil of the nineteenth-century Bolognese painter Adolfo De Carolis, who taught him the fundamentals. To support his family he gave up attending the Art School and the Brera Academy, but graduated in aeronautical engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin in 1975. His activity was thus directed towards two other sectors: that of researcher/teacher at the Catholic University of Milan, Polytechnic of Milan and Turin with over 40/50 Physics/Mathematics publications at national and international level, and as Manager and ICT&Organization Consultant for about 30 years at national/international companies where he worked on Organization, Processes and Information Systems In the sixties he was sought after for commissioned portraits or still lifes. Subsequently, in the 80s - 90s, he developed an innovative, very material technique that uses oil colors and various materials (oil, acrylic, collage, photographic transfer, cement, plaster, etc. ...) on canvas, hardboard or board.
