Arturo Carmassi biography

- ARTURO CARMASSI PAINTER

 

Arturo Carmassi was an Italian sculptor and painter. He was born in Lucca in 1925 and moved to Turin with his family as a child.

Arturo Carmassi attends the Scuola del paesaggio Fontanesi and for a short period also the Accademia Albertina, where he comes into contact with artists who will inspire him at the start of his career as a painter and sculptor. The Piedmontese city at the time was strongly influenced by neo-cubist trends, which will not excessively influence the artist, who will always carve out a space of independence and absolute originality.

After moving to Milan in 1952, the painter began to engage with international movements related to painting and sculpture, coming into contact with the historical avant-gardes of the time. Indeed, in his works from the 1950s, one can glimpse those surrealist elements by which he was influenced during those years of his professional growth and which he would only begin to abandon after about a decade of intense activity.

At the end of the Sixties, Arturo Carmassi seems to move beyond surrealist tendencies and reclaim the objective aspect of the image. The main subjects of his paintings and works return to being landscapes and figures. We can say that Arturo Carmassi's style undergoes continuous evolutions and changes, often influenced by his friendships and acquaintances. His mentors were Patrick Wallberg, a poet close to André Breton, and Jean-Marie Drot himself.

Arturo Carmassi dedicated most of his life to painting, sculpture, and engraving, with a dedication difficult to find in a contemporary artist, earning the deep respect of many prominent figures in the Italian and international scene.

The artist experiments with multiple techniques, each time very different from one another, in a continuous evolution and growth: from collage, to oils, to the use of unconventional materials, such as wax, cardboard, fabrics, and wood. His style is also enriched by international trends, thanks to the numerous trips abroad he takes throughout his life. 

In the last years of his career, Arturo Carmassi preferred to retreat to the Tuscan countryside, in Torre di Fucecchio, between Florence, Pisa, and Lucca. In his homeland, the artist mainly dedicated himself to lithography and chalcography, until the last years of his life.

The late Sixties also coincide with the period of greatest notoriety for the artist, especially among the general public. Internationally, there have been many occasions when he was invited to participate or when his works were exhibited even after his death. By way of example, the following deserve special mention, in chronological order: the exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, held in New York in 1957; the Amsterdam Biennale in 1958; The New Generation in Italian Art, held in Dallas, San Francisco, and New York in 1960; the Triennale Internationale de Gravure sur Bois, held in Germany, Switzerland, and Brazil between 1975 and 1979; finally, the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Moderna di Tokyo e Kyoto in 1976.

His figure is inextricably linked to that of another beloved artist of his time, namely Andrea Camilleri, who mentions him several times during his interviews and in his works as a sublime painter of the 20th century. The tributes to the artist Arturo Carmassi do not end here. Jean-Marie Drot says of him that he is one of the greatest artists of his time, who has yet to be recognized with the place he deserves in the European and international scene. Admired by critics, Arturo Carmassi is considered one of the leading exponents of 20th-century painting and, even after his death, there have been many exhibitions and shows, even at an international level, that have sought to pay him the rightful tribute, demonstrating how his fame has extended beyond national borders.  

Arturo Carmassi dies in Fucecchio, in the province of Empoli, in 2015.