CAPOGROSSI Giuseppe

Giuseppe Capogrossi (Rome, 1900–1972) was one of the leading figures of Italian abstraction in the second half of the 20th 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, became the protagonist of the celebrated Surfaces, compositions in which rhythm, color, and space form an autonomous visual system. A painter and creator of graphic artworks, Capogrossi contributed to the renewal of postwar Italian art, taking part in the Origine group and receiving important international recognition.

Training and early works

Born in Rome on March 7, 1900, Capogrossi initially studied law, earning a degree. At the same time, he developed an increasingly intense interest in painting. In 1923, he attended Felice Carena's Free School of the Nude, where he further explored life drawing and the study of the human figure. His training took place in an artistic environment shaped by the encounter between classical tradition and new European developments. In those years, Italian painting sought languages capable of moving beyond both nineteenth-century naturalism and the more radical outcomes of the avant-garde.

Capogrossi initially pursued a figurative approach characterized by careful construction of forms and a tonal sensibility.

Paris and the Roman School

Between 1927 and 1933, he made repeated stays in Paris. His engagement with French artistic culture helped broaden his artistic research. In 1927, he exhibited at the Pensione Dinesen in Rome with Emanuele Cavalli and Francesco Di Cocco. In 1933, he took part in the exhibition at the Galerie Bonjean in Paris, together with Cavalli, Corrado Cagli, and Ezio Sclavi. L'exhibition was introduced by the critic Waldemar George, who used the expression École de Rome. This label helped establish the so-called Roman School, a movement bringing together different artists united by an interest in a painting capable of interpreting reality through color, light, and atmosphere.

Tonal painting

In the artworks of the 1930s, Capogrossi develops a tonal figuration. The figures are constructed through measured shifts 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 setting is often characterized by a particular stillness. L'artist favors the balance of forms and the continuity of tonalities. This phase represents an essential moment in his career: the later abstraction does not arise from a rejection of composition, but from a desire to explore its fundamental structures in greater depth.

The transformation of the 1940s

In the early 1940s, Capogrossi’s painting gradually changed. His palette expanded to include reds, purples, and oranges. His brushwork grew more energetic, and the forms became less bound by naturalistic description. Between 1947 and 1949, the artist went through a period of experimentation close to Neo-Cubism. The figure was broken down and reorganized through more independent relationships between marks and surfaces. This transition paved the way for a decisive transformation: the abandonment of figurative art and the emergence of a wholly personal abstract language.

The emergence of the Superfici

Around 1949, Capogrossi developed the Superfici series. His research focused on a mark with a recognizable shape, made up of curved, jagged elements. The module could be repeated, rotated, enlarged, reduced, or arranged in different rhythms. It does not depict an object from the real world or correspond to a letter in any known alphabet. It is an autonomous visual element through which the artist constructs the composition’s space. The relationship between mark and background becomes fundamental. The forms may appear isolated or arranged in dense sequences.

Color helps establish hierarchies, pauses, and tensions.

The mark as language

The strength of the Superfici lies in their ability to achieve ever-different results with an extremely limited repertoire. Capogrossi’s mark may recall a comb, an archaeological trace, or a form of archaic writing. These similarities should not, however, be interpreted as literal identifications. L’artist develops an abstract sign-based language in which meaning arises from the relationships between elements. Repetition does not produce uniformity. Each composition has its own balance. L’artwork invites viewers to observe the rhythm, spacing, density, and distribution of forms.

The turning point of 1950

In 1950, Capogrossi presented the abstract artworks at the Galleria del Secolo in Rome. The exhibition publicly marked his shift to a new artistic direction. Exhibitions at the Galleria Il Milione in Milan and the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice followed. During this period, his relationship with gallery owner Carlo Cardazzo grew stronger; Cardazzo helped bring the artworks to audiences in Italy and abroad. Capogrossi’s new painting attracted interest for its originality: he did not simply adhere to geometric abstraction or Informel, but proposed a recognizable and rigorous visual system.

The Origine group

In 1951, Capogrossi took part in founding the Origine group together with Alberto Burri, Mario Ballocco, and Ettore Colla. L'The project grew out of a desire to seek essential elements of artistic language. The four artists developed different paths but shared the need 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, screen prints, and other graphic artworks. Printmaking techniques enabled him to develop the relationship between module, color, and surface. The repetition of the mark is particularly suited to constructing graphic compositions, but each work 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 contributed to the international dissemination of his artistic research.

International recognition

In 1962, Capogrossi received 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 dedicated an entire room to his artworks. In 1971, he received the Twenty Years of the Biennale prize at the São Paulo Biennial and the Prix d'honneur at the International Print Exhibition in Ljubljana. These awards confirm the central role of his artistic research in postwar culture.

L's artistic legacy

Giuseppe Capogrossi dies in Rome on October 9, 1972. His journey, from tonal figuration to the Surfaces, represents one of the most original transformations in twentieth-century Italian art. Through a single modular mark, he built a universe of compositional possibilities. His work demonstrates how the repetition of a form can generate ever-new images, transforming the painted surface into a space of relationships, rhythms, and tensions.