SANDRO CHIA

Initially attracted to conceptual art and the languages of the European neo-avant-gardes, Chia soon realized that academic painting did not meet his need to express freedom and creative vitality. During his study years, he made numerous trips to Europe, India, and Turkey, experiences that enriched his cultural and visual background. In 1970 he settled in Rome, where he began to exhibit regularly, gradually approaching figurative language.
The shift to figurativism was a conscious and revolutionary choice for Chia. The artist abandoned the rigors of conceptual art to embrace a freer and more intense pictorial expression, strongly influenced by the Renaissance tradition and the great masters of modern and contemporary art such as Titian, Masaccio, Tintoretto, de Chirico, Chagall, Cézanne, and Picabia. His painting is full of tension, energy, and dynamism. His canvases are populated by heroic, mythical, or ironic figures, treated with bright colors, thick strokes, and compositions full of pathos.
In the Eighties Sandro Chia became one of the protagonists of the Transavanguardia, a movement theorized by critic Achille Bonito Oliva. This return to painting and expressiveness after conceptual experiments involved other Italian artists such as Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola De Maria, and Enzo Cucchi. Chia exhibited with them in the "Aperto 80" section of the Venice Biennale, officially marking the birth of the movement. In the same year, he held a solo exhibition in New York and moved to the US metropolis, where he would stay for twenty years, while maintaining a strong connection with Italy, particularly with the Castello Romitorio winery estate in Montalcino, Tuscany.
During his American stay, his art received great international attention. He participated in exhibitions at important institutions such as the Paris Biennale, the São Paulo Biennale, and continued to be present in subsequent editions of the Venice Biennale. His artworks stand out for a cultured and refined painting, where narration is always accompanied by a deep aesthetic tension. Canvases like "Brutal protagonists of the erotic fantasy of a monkey" (1979-80), "Unfinished Symphony" (1980), or "Figures with flag and flute" (1983) testify to his unmistakable pictorial style, made of monumentality, irony, and dream.
His production is not limited to painting: Sandro Chia also ventured into sculpture, where he transfers the same suggestions of painting into three-dimensional forms full of expressiveness. The desire to engage with material is also reflected in his numerous monumental artworks commissioned by public bodies: in 2005 the Province of Rome placed two of his sculptures in front of the Via IV Novembre headquarters, while in 2014 the city of Livorno commissioned him a large bronze sculpture.
In 2003 the Italian State acquired three of his artworks for the permanent collection of the Senate of the Republic at Palazzo Madama. Important retrospectives followed: in 2011 at the Foro Boario in Modena and at the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza; in 2012 the exhibition "Transavanguardia" at Palazzo Reale in Milan. In recent years, Sandro Chia continues to work dividing his time between Rome, Miami, and his winery, dedicating himself with the same passion to painting, sculpture, and the production of signature wines.

SANDRO CHIA ARTWORS

The lithographs of Sandro Chia are famous for the energy of the stroke and the expressive power of the figures. They often consist of variations on the classic themes of his painting: melancholic heroes, mythological characters, men in dynamic poses, musical instruments, banners, symbolic animals. The color, although reduced compared to the canvases, maintains a vibrant presence and determines the rhythm of the composition.
The etchings, rarer but equally significant, allow the artist to explore the incised sign, to work on transparencies, chiaroscuro, and the structure of the drawing. His figures, even when reduced to the essential line, retain an immediate iconic strength. The stroke, nervous but controlled, gives depth and dynamism, conveying the idea of an inner world emerging on the surface.
Sandro Chia also used screen printing as a technique to reproduce some of his most iconic works, making them accessible to a wider audience. In these artworks, his interest in visual narration and personal myth emerges, expressed with a recognizable visual language, cultured but also playful and sensual.

SANDRO CHIA PRICES

The prices of Sandro Chia reflect the importance of the artist in the panorama of contemporary Italian and international art. His artworks are regularly present in the catalogs of major international auction houses such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips, and are handled by leading galleries.
Large canvas artworks, particularly those made between the Seventies and Eighties, can reach figures between 40,000 and 150,000 euros, with even higher peaks for works of greater historical and visual impact. Sculptures, especially those in bronze or mixed materials, fall within a range from 20,000 to 100,000 euros depending on size and subject.
Regarding graphic production, Sandro Chia’s lithographs and etchings have more accessible prices: artworks can be found between 1,500 and 6,000 euros, with higher peaks for limited editions or hand-signed pieces. Screen prints, depending on rarity and conservation state, generally range between 1,000 and 3,000 euros.
The prices of Sandro Chia vary based on several factors: period of creation, size, technique, provenance, and historical importance of the artwork. In general, his art is now considered a cornerstone of the second half of the twentieth century in Italy, and interest in his artworks is constant both from private collectors and public institutions, confirming Sandro Chia as one of the most authoritative voices in contemporary art.