Gianbecchina biografia

Gianbecchina, the stage name of Giovanni Becchina, was an Italian painter. He was born in Sambuca, Sicily, in 1909. He received his first rudiments of painting techniques from the decorator Gaetano Grippi, for whom he worked as an apprentice, helping him paint the ceilings of the patrician houses of Sambuca.
In 1930, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome until he won a scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo, where he would continue his studies.
In Palermo, he frequents the house of Lia Pasqualino Noto and joins the group of avant-garde artists which included, besides Noto herself, Renato Guttuso, Giovanni Barbera, and Nino Franchina.
In 1938, he exhibited at the XXI Venice Biennale and in the same year moved to Milan where he met Beniamino Joppolo, a point of reference for all Sicilian emigrants, and with him Renato Birolli, Giuseppe Migneco, Salvatore Quasimodo, Raffaellino de Grada, Arnoldo Badodi and other artists who gave life to the group Corrente.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he is forced to return to Sicily where he obtains a position at the Liceo Artistico in Palermo.
With the works La contrattazione from 1944 and La Famiglia from 1945, he anticipates the themes of Neorealism and succeeds in giving voice, like few other artists after him, to the struggles of the Sicilian peasant world.
In the following years, exhibitions and shows are held throughout Italy and abroad, also leading him to receive important public recognitions. Alongside his intense painting activity, there is a significant production of art graphics, engravings, etchings, lithographs, and serigraphs. His works are found in galleries and public and private collections. In 1997, the Istituzione Giambecchina was founded, directed by his son Alessandro. A few years later, in 2001, the artist passed away in his hometown.