Carla Tolomeo Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Carla Tolomeo was born in Pinerolo (TO), but grew up and studied in Rome where she trained as a painter. Encouraged, while still a child, by Giorgio de Chirico and later by Guttuso, Gentilini and Attardi, in 1971 she began to exhibit in Lugano, finding a source of inspiration above all in Japanese painting. Read the full biography

Carla Tolomeo Biography

Carla Tolomeo was born in Pinerolo (TO), but grew up and studied in Rome where she trained as a painter. Encouraged, while still a child, by Giorgio de Chirico and later by Guttuso, Gentilini and Attardi, in 1971 she began to exhibit in Lugano, finding a source of inspiration above all in Japanese painting. It will be another illustrious name in culture, Giovanni Testori, who will present her at the Milanese Galleria Cavour, which will pay homage to her with the exhibition entitled The Stories of Herodias. It is therefore in Milan, where she moved, that Tolomeo will begin a new fervent artistic season, making use of the studies made on the work of Vittore Carpaccio. Between 1976 and 1980, Carla Tolomeo exhibited in Europe: Vienna, Geneva, Zurich and Athens. He dedicated drawings and etchings to the memoirist Giacomo Casanova, accompanied by a text by Leonardo Sciascia. After an interesting experience in Paraguay, Carla Tolomeo's work will once again find its center in Milan. The creative work is accompanied by the teaching of engraving at the Brera and Venice Academy. In 1995, the artist exhibited a series of Variations from the works of Mantegna in Mantua. In 1996 his works were on display in Prague, in the Italian Lazzaretto Museum, and later in Zagreb, guest of the Italian Cultural Institute. In 1997, Tolomeo was invited to London in the Leicester Galleries with a major exhibition: Homage to Leonardo. In the same year he began to exhibit the Chairs, which marked a turning point in his artistic production. With these creations, a true pretext for cultured fun that was immediately received by the whole world, Tolomeo surprises its collectors. As she herself writes in the presentation of her first catalog dedicated to Chair-Sculptures, her artistic philosophy consists in a mutation-transformation of the chair from any object to an art object, starting from the most banal and domestic piece of furniture. Strengthened by her life experience, her studies, the wealth of her research on Borges, her skill, her study of Japanese painting and the teachings of her ancient master, Giorgio de Chirico, Carla Tolomeo manages to transform chairs into totems , in a flash of fish, in a flower of enormous dimensions, etc.