Sergio Vacchi biography

Sergio Vacchi was born on 1 April 1925 in Castenaso, a small town near Bologna, to Maria Luisa Barchetti and Giuseppe Vacchi. His childhood took place between Castenaso and Bologna, where, starting from the age of six, he was sent to live with his aunt Angiolina to attend the San Luigi College of the Barnabite Fathers. Despite his parents' desire to offer him a solid classical education, Vacchi never forgives their gesture, feeling abandoned and far from his mother's care. Of a solitary and introverted nature, he finds comfort in reading and develops a strong interest in literature and art.
After finishing classical high school, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law, but left his studies after only two exams to dedicate himself to his true passion: painting. He approached art as a self-taught and frequented the studio of the painter Garzia Fioresi for a short period. In 1946, he rented a studio in via Borgonuovo in Bologna, where he began to develop his own pictorial style, influenced by the works of Giorgio Morandi and the lessons of Roberto Longhi, an art historian whom he attended as an auditor at the Faculty of Letters.
In 1951 he held his first solo show at the Galleria del Milione in Milan, curated by his friend and critic Francesco Arcangeli. His early works show the influence of Van Gogh and Picasso's post-cubism, with a strong social commitment. Between 1952 and 1955, he abandoned these influences in favor of a more lyrical naturalism, inspired by Cézanne's views of the Sainte-Victoire mountain, concentrating onlandscapes Po valleys characterized by natural and dense light.
In 1958, Vacchi began to gain international recognition, participating in the Venice Biennale and the exhibition of contemporary Italian painting in Copenhagen. In the same year, he also exhibited at the Contemporaries Gallery in New York. The following year he moved to Rome, where he frequented important figures from the world of art and culture, such as Ennio Calabria, Renato Guttuso, Federico Fellini and others. In the sixties, he was appreciated by critics and collectors, including Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti.
During this period, Vacchi painted three pictorial cycles that addressed the theme of power: "The Council" (1962), "The death of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen" (1966) and "Galileo Galilei semper" (1968). These cycles mark his detachment from the Informal and his commitment to social criticism through visionary and grotesque painting. In 1964, the Venice Biennale dedicated a personal room to him, but his works caused scandal, so much so that Cardinal Urbani forbade the clergy from visiting the exhibition.
In 1968, in the midst of social protest, Vacchi began the "Cycle of the Planet", completed in 1973 with the immense canvas "Finisterre". In these works, the artist takes refuge in dreams and surreal visions, populated by men, women, animals and twisted bodies. In the seventies and eighties, he continued to evolve artistically with cycles such as "The lustral pools" (1974), characterized by sensual and erotic content, and "The Rooms of Nekyia" (1983-1986), where he represents characters in closed interiors, surrounded by few objects.
In 1988, he rediscovered Marcel Proust and created a series of paintings dedicated to the great man of letters, depicting him in dancing and surreal atmospheres. In the nineties, he continued to work intensely, receiving awards such as the "Scipione Award" for his career in 2002. In 1997 he moved to the Siena area, to the Castello di Grotti, where he founded the Sergio Foundation Vacchi, dedicated to promoting artistic and cultural activities.
In 2001, twelve drawings and a self-portrait by Vacchi were acquired by the Uffizi museum. The artist continued to paint until 2007, when, suffering from Parkinson's, he stopped working. In 2015 he received the Sanese d'Argento from the municipal administration of Siena. Sergio Vacchi passed away on January 15, 2016, leaving a rich and varied artistic legacy, witness to a unique creative path deeply rooted in social criticism and formal experimentation.