Mario Francesconi biography

- MARIO FRANCESCONI PAINTER

 

Mario Francesconi is an Italian painter and sculptor. He was born in Viareggio in 1934.

In 1955, he was called to Rome to serve in the Air Force. In Rome, he met Leonida Rapaci, who introduced him to the Roman artistic scene, where he would come into contact with the exponents of the Roman School and meet the painter Mario Marcucci.

In 1959, Mario Francesconi held his first solo exhibition at the Galleria d’arte La Navicella in Viareggio, where he would return to exhibit again in 1960 and 1964, coinciding with the Premio Letterario Viareggio, which would provide him with opportunities for important encounters from Neruda to Longhi, from Pasolini to Buzzati, from Carlo Bo to Mino Maccari.

After a short stay in Paris, between 1960 and 1962, he moved to Rome and began to frequent the art galleries La Salita, La Tartaruga, and San Luca. 

The seventies see him engaged in a series of national and international exhibitions, from Milan to Tokyo, from Basel to Vienna, from Salerno to Frankfurt. Equally numerous are the study trips from 1977 to 1981 between Paris, London, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam, during which he comes into contact with artists such as Wifredo Lam, Hans Hartung, and Henry Moore. In 1985, he returns to exhibit at the Galleria Pananti in Florence with the exhibition entitled Architecture.

In 1992, at a contemporary art fair at the Fortezza da Basso, he exhibited a significant series of works dedicated to the dog Tobia, from which Manlio Cancogni wrote a story published by Pananti.  

Between 1998 and 1999, he worked almost exclusively on a painting cycle, consisting of nine paintings divided into three triptychs dedicated to the themes of Mystery, Life, and Death, commissioned for the anterefectory of the Abbey of Vallombrosa. 

Since 1989, he has permanently established his studio in Florence where he still lives and works.