Claudio Verna biography

Claudio Verna, born in 1937 in Guardiagrele, in the province of Chieti, is a recognized Italian painter and a key figure and founder of the artistic movement "Pittura Analitica". His artistic education took shape in Umbria and was completed at the University of Florence, where he graduated in 1961 with a thesis on "Figurative Arts in Industrial Civilization". In Florence, he had the opportunity to establish significant contacts with exponents of classical abstractionism and other painters, marking the beginning of his career with significant exhibitions.
Having moved to Rome in 1961, Claudio Verna spent several years in a phase of experimentation and autonomous definition of his artistic path, before returning to exhibit in 1967. This period marks his conviction in the "ancient and indispensable reasons" of painting, leading to the birth of Analytical Painting, a movement that reflects on contemporary art and its relationship with modern tradition.
Claudio Verna's work is distinguished by its mature expressiveness, characterized by an extreme rigor and an intense emotional abandonment. Color is the dominant element in his paintings, exploring saturation and light. His solo exhibitions have reached impressive numbers, over a hundred, both in Italy and abroad, with significant participations such as the Venice Biennale and exhibitions in renowned museums.
Internationally, Claudio Verna has been a constant presence in group exhibitions and shows, receiving various accolades, including the prestigious "Antonio Feltrinelli" Prize for painting from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in 2008 and the appointment as a National Academician of the Accademia di San Luca. In 2010, the Catalogue Raisonné of his work was published, edited by Volker W. Feierabend and Marco Meneguzzo.
Claudio Verna's painting, since the 1950s, has been distinguished by a gesturality of contained energetic tension and explicit chromatic value, characterized by red, yellow, orange, gray tones, and flashes of green. His primary vocation is revealed in the exploration of the qualities of color, ranging from the chromatic compositions of the 1960s to a rigorous abstraction in the following years.
Claudio Verna was an authoritative protagonist in the renewal of painting, conducting an artistic research that was coherent and significantly connected to aesthetic reflection and the values of tradition and contemporaneity. His theoretical and practical approach has always reaffirmed the specificity of the pictorial language, distinguishing itself in a scene dominated by cold nullifications and sophisticated conceptual tautologies.
In the 1970s, his work underwent a transformation, with the surface of the canvases becoming a stage for new color-light emotions, creating images of high formal quality. His works often unfold in sign-like textures measured in gesture and broken in rhythm, where color explodes in skillful harmonies.
Claudio Verna, living and working in Rome, has continued to be a central figure in the artistic scene, with his style that has gone through different phases and has seen evolutions in visual language. His art has been fundamental in promoting a return to painting and in enhancing its constituent elements. His rich and varied career has left an indelible mark on the world of contemporary art, evidenced by a body of work that continues to influence and inspire.