Amedeo Ruggiero Biography
Amedeo Ruggiero (Tunis, 11 April 1912 – Rome, 6 June 1986) was an Italian painter. Amedeo Ruggiero was born in Tunis on 11 April 1912 to a Neapolitan father, a funerary sculptor, and a Sicilian mother. In 1929 Ruggiero fled from Tunis to go to Paris via Marseille. In France the young Ruggiero had various experiences that would lead him to be expelled from the country. 1935 Ruggiero attends the Ecole de Beaux Artes directed by Armand Vergeaud and holds his first solo exhibition at the Galeries De La Rotonde. 1939 Amedeo Ruggiero exhibits in Nice at the Palais De La Mediterranee. He subsequently moves to Rome where he will remain for the rest of his life. 1943 First exhibition in Italy at the Salone del Mare Nostro in Milan 1944 The first exhibition in Rome is held at the La Campana gallery 1945 Exhibition of works at the Prora gallery 1946 At the Rome gallery he exhibits in a group show together with L. Bartolini, R. Melli , S. Monachesi, A. Corpora, G. Omiccioli, F. Pirandello and others. 1948 Amedeo Ruggiero exhibits in Rome at the La Giraffa gallery 1955-1956 During a stay in Tunis he exhibits at the L'Atelier gallery. 1957 He exhibits at the Il Calderone gallery, the Portonovo gallery and in Naples at the Josè gallery. Piero Girace underlines how over the years Ruggiero has «strengthened color by freeing it from all expressionistic, post-impressionistic, Fauvist waste, enhancing it in an almost abstract manner, with clear-cut applications and with a formal rigor that reaches the limits of abstractionism». In August he won the gold medal at the Avezzano Prize. 1958 Wins the Avezzano Prize for the second time. 1959 He meets Lidia Marcelli who he marries the following year. He exhibited thirty works presented by Valerio Mariani at the Russo gallery in Rome. Participates in a collective of Roman artists at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. He is invited to the VIII Roman Quadrennial where he exhibits -Paesaggio- 1960 He wins a prize at the National Painting Exhibition -Gaetano Loffredo- promoted by the administration of Latina. 1961 Wins a prize at the 2nd Posillipo National Painting Prize. 1961 He holds a solo show at the Russo gallery, an exhibition to which Vito Apuleo dedicates a long article in -La Voce Repubblicana -. He took part in the XV Michetti Prize and the Oslo exhibition -Roman Painters-, together with Cagli, Gentilini, De Chirico, Rizzo and others. Participate in the Prize - Rome and the Risorgimento in Palazzo Braschi -. In Florence he is present in a group show at the Spinetti Gallery with De Chirico, Tamburi, Trombadori, Guttuso etc. In November Piero Girace presents a solo exhibition at the Chiurazzi gallery. 1962 He exhibits in Messina at the Il Fondaco gallery, and in Rome at the La Barcaccia gallery. An article by Franco Miele appears in La Giustizia. He placed second together with Marcello Avenali at the Bagnoregio Prize and won the third edition of the Posillipo Prize. 1964 Personal exhibition at the Russo gallery presented by Piero Girace. 1965 He exhibits at the Russo gallery. He is invited by Bonaventura Tecchi to the IX Quadrennial. 1968 Presented by Albano Rossi he exhibited at the Il Cenacolo gallery in Palermo. Raffaele Andreassi curates a documentary dedicated to the work of Amedeo Ruggiero entitled -Autoritratto-, broadcast by RAI on 2 June (and periodically re-shown by RAI channels). 1970-1980 In the seventies, due to a period of depression, he decided to give up exhibitions but continued to dedicate himself to painting, exhibiting outside the Roman circuits. In 1980 he will return with an exhibition at the Galleria Russo in front of which Sciltian will notice, as Michele Calabrese describes in an article in Il Borghese, a special love for Bonnard and post-impressionism. 1981 Guglielmo Petroni and Raffaele Andreassi on the occasion of a personal exhibition at the La Gradiva gallery present a monograph on Amedeo Ruggiero. 1982 He holds a personal exhibition at La Barcaccia with presentation in the catalog by Raffaele Andreassi. 1984 Amedeo Ruggiero's last exhibition at La Barcaccia. 1986 On 6 June Amedeo Ruggiero dies in Rome. 1990 In Rome, at the Monumental Complex of San Michele, from 21 June to 21 July, the anthological exhibition of works from 1943 to 1987 takes place. The exhibition is curated by Lea Mattarella and Marco Di Capua, presentation by Guglielmo Petroni, Coordination general Antonino Mattarella. The exhibition is sponsored by the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, the Ministry of Education, the Mayor of Rome and the Culture Department of the Municipality of Rome.
