Leonardo Spreafico Biography
Leonardo Spreafico (Monza, 5 November 1907 – Milan, 15 December 1974) was an Italian painter. He spent his childhood and adolescence in his hometown of Monza and in Monza Park he met the painter Antonio Ambrogio Alciati who would be his mentor for his vocation to art. In 1926 he began his artistic training at the ISIA institute, recently established in his hometown, graduating in 1933. His teachers were Arturo Martini, Pio Semeghini, Raffaele De Grada. He opens a painting studio in Milan, in Corso Garibaldi, and also dedicates himself to teaching. From 1930 onwards the group of Milanese artists and the Como group were formed: they began to look towards Europe and Spreafico found himself alongside the artistic avant-gardes. It is the time of meetings with Luigi Broggini, Costantino Nivola, Pittino, Afro Basaldella, Arnaldo Badodi, Sirio Musso: thus the Casa degli Artisti association was born in via Garibaldi 89 in Milan (the «Garibaldi 89» group), so important in the battle for the renewal of Italian art. In 1934 he attended the Brera Academy, studying painting, architecture and applied arts, graduating the following year. He stayed in Venice together with Afro Basaldella and, in 1936, he was invited to the Venice Biennale where he presented the work «The tale of the gypsy», which earned him the interest of Carlo Carrà. Also in 1936, he won a competition announced by the «Italia» Navigation Company, together with B. Buffoni, for a large panel intended for the New York station, thus having the possibility of making a trip overseas. In 1937 in Paris he collaborated with Mario Sironi, Fausto Melotti and B. Buffoni on the set-up of the Italian pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition. He presented the work "Painter of Nudes" at the 20th Venice Biennale. The following year he obtained the chair of Decorative Composition at the Umanitaria Educational Institutes of Milan. In 1939 he was invited to participate in the III Quadrennial in Rome where he exhibited «Ritratto di Signora» and presented a personal exhibition at the Galleria Genova in Genoa. He was invited to exhibit graphics at the VII Triennale di Milano in 1940 and the following year he obtained the chair of «Figure and Painting» at the Istituto Superiore Industriale ed Artistico of the Villa Reale in Monza. At the 1942 Venice Biennale he had an entire wall set up and at the IV Premio Bergamo he exhibited the painting «The sad model», which obtained the Ministry's purchase prize. He was called up to arms in 1943, in Calabria where he fell ill with malaria; he returned to the Italian peninsula with the Allied forces and was discharged in 1945. He returned to Milan where he found the studio in Corso Garibaldi completely destroyed. He exhibited a solo show at the Arengario in Monza in 1946, presenting works that now expressed the fruit of his personal research. He took part in the 1948 Venice Biennale, the first after the war, where he exhibited «Boats in port». He participates in other important events, obtaining prizes and recognitions: the Gulf Prize in La Spezia, the Orvieto Prize, the Michetti Francavilla al Mare Prize, the City of Alessandria Prize and the San Remo Prize with a jury chaired by Felice Casorati; He goes to Paris for a long period of study. In 1949 he participated in the Collettiva of Palazzo Reale in Milan, in the Golfo della Spezia Prize and in the Siena Prize. In 1951 he won the V Michetti Prize at Villafranca al Mare and the Gold Medal at the IX Triennale of Milan. He goes on a work and study trip to Barcelona. The altarpiece dedicated to San Giovanni Bosco in the Rondinella Church in Sesto San Giovanni kept him busy for much of 1952. From 1953 to 1961 he taught at the Higher School of Applied Arts of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. Among his collaborators, in 1958 he hired Ettore Bonfatti Sabbioni, an Italian engraver artist, as his assistant. In 1959 he participated in the Milan Biennale. and the following year he dedicated himself to the staging of two personal exhibitions in Milan at the «Parete del Pino» Gallery and in Brescia at the Alberti Gallery. Participation in the 1961 Venice Biennale earned him the gold medal of the prestigious International Exhibition and, in the same year, he also obtained the gold medal at the eighth National Painting Competition - Ramazzotti Prize. From 1962 to 1970 he taught at the Toschi Art Institute, now the Paolo Toschi State Art High School in Parma, where he held the chair of Painting until 1970. In the meantime he was invited again to the XXII Milan Biennale and exhibited in various solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad in Frankental (Germany), in Barcelona (Spain) and in Porto (Portugal). In Germany in Frankenthal, in Barcelona, in San Pellegrino Terme and in Campione d'Italia he exhibited, in 1966, some works with studies linked to abstract-informal studies: "the flowers". In 1968 he created a large window for the apse of the Church of S. Ambrogio ad Nemus in Cinisello Balsamo and worked for other important solo shows in Bergamo, Milan, Porto, Rovereto with excellent critical success. The solo shows set up in 1971 took place in San Giorgio Piacentino and in Monza. He died suddenly in 1974 and was buried in Cinisello Balsamo.
