Luigi Spacal Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

He was born into a Slovenian family originally from the Karst in 1907. He began working at the age of ten following the premature death of his father and was hired while still very young, in the twenties, as a designer at the San Marco shipyard in Trieste. Read the full biography

He was born into a Slovenian family originally from the Karst in 1907. He began working at the age of ten following the premature death of his father and was hired while still very young, in the twenties, as a designer at the San Marco shipyard in Trieste. In 1930 he was arrested for his anti-fascist activity and sent to the border at Accettura in Basilicata. In that period his vocation matured and he dedicated himself to artistic studies, first as a self-taught person and then by attending the Art School of Venice where he graduated in 1934. Having obtained his qualification, he taught in the Slovenian schools of Trieste. In 1936 he enrolled at the Higher Institute for Decorative Art in Monza where his teachers were Semeghini, De Grada, Pica and the Triestine Pagano. He exhibited for the first time with other artists from Trieste in a collective exhibition in 1937. In the same period as a private individual he also attended the Brera Academy in Milan, having contacts with the avant-gardes active in that area. One of his works was admitted to the first in Abruzzo and subsequently in a special work battalion in Forte dei Marmi. Despite the difficulties he still managed to exhibit in 1942 in Milan in the Mostra Sette Artisti Triestini. In 1944 he managed to stage his first solo show at the Galleria Milione in Milan, thanks to the fact that for some years the most astute critics had taken note of his work with interest. In 1948 he took part in the Venice Biennale for the first time where he returned to exhibit in 1954 and 1958, obtaining the international grand prize for drawing and graphics. In 1955 he won the City of Rome Prize at the VII Quadrennial. In 1968 the Revoltella Museum in Trieste dedicated a first major exhibition to him. In 1974 he was awarded the Preseren Prize, the highest Slovenian artistic recognition, and in 1977 the prestigious San Giusto d'Oro award. The following year, 1988, a museum dedicated to him was founded in San Daniele del Carso and is located in the castle. In 1997 the Culture Department of the Municipality of Trieste dedicated an important anthological exhibition to him created by the Revoltella Civic Museum of Modern Art. His death occurred in 2000.