Gianbecchina biography

Gianbecchina, the stage name of Giovanni Becchina, was an Italian painter. He was born in Sambuca, Sicily, in 1909. He received his first rudiments of painting techniques from the decorator Gaetano Grippi, for whom he worked as an apprentice helping to paint the vaults of the noble houses of Sambuca.
In 1930, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome until he won a scholarship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo, where he continued his studies.
In Palermo, he frequents the house of Lia Pasqualino Noto and joins the avant-garde group of artists which included, besides Noto herself, Renato Guttuso, Giovanni Barbera and Nino Franchina.
In 1938, he exhibits at the XXI Venice Biennale and in the same year moves to Milan where he meets Beniamino Joppolo, a reference point 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 Corrente group.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he is forced to return to Sicily where he obtains a teaching position at the Artistic High School of Palermo.
With the works La contrattazione from 1944 and La Famiglia from 1945, he 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 displays take place throughout Italy and abroad, also leading him to receive important public recognitions. Alongside his intense painting activity, there is a significant production of graphic art, engravings, etchings, lithographs, and serigraphs. His works are found in galleries and public and private collections. In 1997, the Istituzione Giambecchina was founded, directed by his son Alessandro. A few years later, in 2001, the artist passed away in his hometown.