Enrico Della Torre biography

Enrico Della Torre was an Italian painter and engraver among the main exponents of the Italian Informal movement. He was born in Pizzighettone, in the province of Cremona, in 1931. He studied first at the Liceo Artistico and then at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, attending the school of Achille Funi. In 1954 he attended the Roberto Melli School of Painting in Rome.
In 1953 he created paintings and engravings characterized by an informal naturalism inspired by the landscapes of his countryside in the Po Valley but also from reading the texts of the critic Francesco Arcangeli.
These works will later be exhibited in 1956 in a solo exhibition at the Galleria dell'Ariete in Milan, curated by Guido Dance . The same year he also exhibited at the Galleria del Circolo di Cultura di Bologna.
After a trip to Paris, he began a new series of paintings characterized by parallel horizontal lines drawn on light surfaces and clear. In 1959 he instead created paintings punctuated by black diagonals.
In 1961 he exhibited at the George Lester Gallery in Rome together with Claudio Olivieri, and in 1963 he held a solo show at the Galleria del Milione, presented in the catalog by Roberto Tassi. Between 1964 and 1967 he exhibited at the Justus Liebig Universität of Giessen, at the Galleria Ciranna in Milan, at the Biblioteca Comunale di Palazzo Sormani in Milan and at the Galleria Morone 6 again in Milan.
Starting from 1968, Enrico Della Torre's works are filled with characters, animals and visions with a lyrical-naturalistic flavour .
He continues to exhibit in personal and collective exhibitions in Italy and abroad. In 1987 a large retrospective was dedicated to him, organized by Erich Steingräber and Annegret Hoberg in Germany. In 1989 the PAC, Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan, also dedicated an anthology of works on paper to him.
In 2011 he participated in the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale.<
Enrico Della Torre died in 2022 in Teglio in Valtellina, where for many years he had spent part of his time in the quiet of the mountains.