Gianbecchina biography

Gianbecchina, stage name of Giovanni Becchina, was an Italian painter. He was born in Sambuca, Sicily, in 1909. He received the first rudiments of painting techniques from the decorator Gaetano Grippi for whom he worked as an apprentice helping him to paint the vaults of the patrician houses of Sambuca
In 1930 he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome until he wins a scholarship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo, where he will continue his studies.
In Palermo he frequents the house of Lia Pasqualino Noto and joins the group of avant-garde artists which included, in addition to Noto itself, Renato Guttuso, Giovanni Barbera and Nino Franchina.
In 1938 he exhibited at the XXI Venice Art Biennale and in the same year he 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 was forced to return to Sicily where he obtained a professorship at the Art School of Palermo.
With the works The Bargaining of 1944 and The Family of 1945 anticipates the themes of Neorealism and manages to give voice, like few other artists after him, to the struggles of the Sicilian peasant world.
In the following years, exhibitions and exhibitions followed one another throughout Italy and abroad, also leading him to obtain important public recognition. The intense pictorial activity is accompanied by an important production of art graphics, engravings, etchings, lithographs and serigraphs. His works can be found in public and private galleries and collections. In 1997 the Giambecchina Institution was founded, directed by his son Alessandro. A few years later, in 2001, the artist passed away in his hometown.