CAPOGROSSI Giuseppe

Giuseppe Capogrossi (Rome, 1900–1972) was one of the leading figures of Italian abstraction in the second half of the twentieth century. After an important figurative period associated with the Roman School, he developed a radically personal language based on the repetition and variation of a single modular sign. This element, resembling a toothed structure or a comb, becomes the protagonist of the celebrated Surfaces, compositions in which rhythm, color, and space create an autonomous visual system. A painter and creator of artworks, Capogrossi contributed to the renewal of postwar Italian art, taking part in the Origine group and receiving major international recognition.

Training and Early Work

Born in Rome on March 7, 1900, Capogrossi initially studies law and earns a degree. At the same time, he develops an increasingly keen interest in painting.

In 1923, he attends Felice Carena’s Free School of Nude Art, where he studies life drawing and the human figure in greater depth.

His training takes place in an artistic environment shaped by the dialogue between classical tradition and new European experiences. In those years, Italian painting seeks languages capable of moving beyond both nineteenth-century naturalism and the more radical outcomes of the avant-gardes.

Capogrossi initially develops a figurative practice characterized by careful construction of forms and tonal sensitivity.

Paris and the Roman School

Between 1927 and 1933, he makes repeated stays in Paris. Engagement with French artistic culture helps broaden his artistic practice.

In 1927, he exhibits at Pensione Dinesen in Rome with Emanuele Cavalli and Francesco Di Cocco.

In 1933, he takes part in the exhibition at the Galerie Bonjean in Paris, alongside Cavalli, Corrado Cagli, and Ezio Sclavi. The exhibition is introduced by critic Waldemar George, who uses the expression École de Rome.

The term helped establish the so-called Roman School, a movement that brought together different artists united by an interest in painting that could interpret reality through color, light, and atmosphere.

Tonal painting

In his works of the 1930s, Capogrossi developed a tonal figurative style.

The figures are constructed through measured transitions in color. Color does not simply describe surfaces, but helps define space.

The composition retains references to the Italian tradition, reinterpreted through a modern sensibility.

The relationship between figures and their surroundings is often characterized by a particular stillness. The artist favors the balance of forms and the continuity of tones.

This phase represents an essential moment in his career: the later abstraction did not arise from a rejection of composition, but from a desire to explore its fundamental structures more deeply.

The transformation of the 1940s

In the early 1940s, Capogrossi’s painting gradually changed.

The palette expands to include reds, purples, and oranges. The brushwork gains energy, and the forms become less bound to naturalistic description.

Between 1947 and 1949, the artist went through a period of experimentation close to Neo-Cubism.

The figure is broken down and reorganized through more autonomous relationships between signs and surfaces.

This transition sets the stage for a decisive transformation: the abandonment of figuration and the emergence of a wholly personal abstract language.

The birth of the Surfaces

Around 1949, Capogrossi developed the Surfaces series.

The research focuses on a sign with a recognizable shape, made up of curved, toothed elements.

The module can be repeated, rotated, enlarged, reduced, or arranged in different rhythms.

It does not represent an object from the real world and does not correspond to a letter in any known alphabet.

It is an autonomous visual element through which the artist constructs the space of the composition.

The relationship between sign and background becomes fundamental. The forms may appear isolated or arranged in dense sequences.

Color helps establish hierarchies, pauses, and tensions.

The sign as language

The strength of the Surfaces lies in their ability to achieve ever-different results using an extremely limited repertoire.

Capogrossi’s sign may resemble a comb, an archaeological trace, or an archaic form of writing.

These similarities should not, however, be interpreted as literal identifications.

The artist develops an abstract sign language, in which meaning arises from the relationships between elements.

Repetition does not produce uniformity. Each composition has its own specific balance.

The artwork invites viewers to observe the rhythm, distance, density, and distribution of the forms.

The turning point of 1950

In 1950, Capogrossi presented his abstract artworks at the Galleria del Secolo in Rome.

The exhibition publicly marked the transition to his new research.

This was followed by exhibitions at Galleria Il Milione in Milan and Galleria del Cavallino in Venice.

During this period, he strengthened his relationship with gallery owner Carlo Cardazzo, who helped spread his artworks in Italy and abroad.

The new painting attracted interest for its originality: Capogrossi did not simply embrace geometric abstraction or Art Informel, but proposed a recognizable and rigorous visual system.

The Origine group

In 1951, Capogrossi helped found the Origine group with Alberto Burri, Mario Ballocco, and Ettore Colla.

The experience grew from a desire to seek the essential elements of artistic language.

The four artists pursued different paths but shared a desire to move beyond traditional representation.

That same year, Capogrossi took part in the exhibition Véhémences Confrontées in Paris, contributing to the international recognition of his research.

Original prints

Alongside painting, Capogrossi created lithographs, silkscreens, and other graphic artworks.

Printmaking techniques make it possible to develop the relationship between module, color, and surface.

The repeated sign is particularly suited to constructing graphic compositions, but each artwork retains its own organization.

Original prints should not be confused with reproductions of paintings: in artworks conceived for printmaking, the artist's language is adapted to the specific possibilities of the process.

His printmaking and lithographic work helped spread his research internationally.

International recognition

In 1962, Capogrossi won the painting prize at the Venice Biennale, jointly with Ennio Morlotti, as part of a solo exhibition.

In 1968, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome devoted an entire room to his artworks.

In 1971, he received the Twenty Years of the Biennale award at the São Paulo Biennial and the Prix d'honneur at the International Printmaking Exhibition in Ljubljana.

These accolades confirm the central role of his research in postwar artistic culture.

The artistic legacy

Giuseppe Capogrossi died in Rome on October 9, 1972.

His career, from tonal figuration to the Surfaces, represents one of the most original transformations in twentieth-century Italian art.

Through a single modular sign, he built a universe of compositional possibilities.

His artworks show how the repetition of a form can generate ever-new images, transforming the painted surface into a space of relationships, rhythms, and tensions.