Walter Resentera Biography
Walter Resentera was born in Seren del Grappa on 9 February 1907 to Ernesto Quintino, municipal secretary, and Olga Scopel. The family moved to Pedavena where he established friendly relations with Giovanni Luciani, the entrepreneur who owned the «Pedavena» brewery. [resentera by bike] Walter obtained his accountancy diploma in Padua, but showed, from a very young age, a strong inclination for drawing and painting. After his military service in Verona, in 1928, he went to Milan with the aim of making a living from painting, but had to adapt to finding some occasional commissions to survive and highlight his talents. In the meantime he frequented the classic artists' haunts such as the Savini café-restaurant and the Bagutta restaurant. Having met the great poster artist Marcello Dudovich in February 1929, at an exhibition of Basilio and Michele Cascella, he began working for him and managed to make himself known in the world of advertising posters and illustration. He worked for Valentino Bompiani with whom he formed friendships, for «L'Illustrazione Italiana», «La Lettura» and other magazines. He also won various competitions for regime posters, in particular the national one in 1935 to illustrate Mussolini's motto "It is the plow that traces the furrow, but it is the sword that defends it". [resentera above a building in Milan] In 1935 he married Adriana, Marcello Dudovich's only daughter. In the environment of the historic trattoria Bagutta had become friends, among others, with Anselmo Bucci, Mario Vellani Marchi, Giuseppe Novello, Achille Funi, Bernardino Palazzi, the poster artists Mondaini and Sinòpico and the writers Bacchelli, Rocca, Montale, Gadda, Monelli, Santucci and Zavattini. In the 1930s, Resentera achieved considerable success for its ability to autonomously interpret the "Roman" spirit of the time. For this he earned the esteem of Duilio Cambellotti, Arturo Martini, Enrico Sacchetti and the critic Ugo Ojetti. Walter Resentera also expressed himself in fresco, tempera and mosaic mural painting. In addition to private buildings, he created the cycles of the Ministry of Aeronautics in Rome, in collaboration with Dudovich, of the «Rinascente» palace and the «Forlanini» airport in Milan, The legends of the Monti Pallidi in the Pedavena brewery, the vault of the power plants of Soverzene and Somplago, as well as the fresco in the Assembly Hall in the Milan headquarters of the Association of Construction and Complementary Companies of the Province of Milan and the vast mosaic for the Dreher factory in Massafra. Roberto Curci defines them as «splendid, surprising works: works of great vision and extraordinary manual skill». Resentera mostly created commissioned works where he could reconcile the client's wishes with his own compositional freedom. Reluctant to be part of schools, movements and groups, he rarely exhibited and only from the mid-1960s, when he moved to Monza. He ended up withdrawing into himself and emerged from isolation by painting easel paintings in which he showed particular skill in portraiture. Now feeling lost in the Milanese environment, Walter Resentera moved to Treviso in 1976 where he expected his creative personality to be recognised, a recognition that he had lacked due to the cone of shadow in which the overwhelming personality of his illustrious father-in-law kept him. However, the expectations were not fulfilled. After the death of his wife Adriana in 1991, the artist suffered a psychophysical breakdown and was welcomed by his nephew in Schio. Here he passed away on 28 July 1995.
