Pippo Oriani biography

Giuseppe Oriani, known as Pippo Oriani, was born in Turin on June 25, 1909. Raised in a family of construction entrepreneurs, he showed a strong interest in drawing and artwork from a young age. After beginning studies in architecture at the Higher School of Architecture, Oriani approached pictorial research. In 1928, he joined the Turin futurist group led by Enrico Prampolini, marking the start of his artistic career.
Oriani officially debuted in the art world by exhibiting two out-of-catalog paintings at the Valentino Park in Turin, invited by Prampolini. This event represents his entry into the futurist movement, and from then on he participated in all the main futurist exhibitions in Italy and abroad. Between 1929 and 1933, Oriani lived in Paris, where he came into contact with the leading artists of the European avant-gardes, such as Zadkine, Lèger, Kandinsky, Delaunay, Picasso, Deslaw, Le Corbusier, Sephor and Severini. During this period, he exhibited at Galerie 23 and at Bernheim Jaune, and signed a contract with the art dealer Paul Rosenberg.
In the French capital, Oriani collaborated with writers Tullio Cordero and Giacomo Martina, and together they created the film "Vitesse" (1930-31), an artwork that celebrates the futurist myth of speed. This film, the only existing example of futurist cinema, was partially recovered in 1996 by the Experimental Center of Cinematography.
In the 1930s, Oriani continued to participate in the Venice Biennales, exhibiting in 1930, 1932, 1934, 1936, 1938, and 1940, and also took part in the I and II editions of the Rome Quadriennale. In 1931, he approached Aeropainting, a movement parallel to futurist artwork that exalts the dynamism of flight. However, after a brief aeropainting phase, Oriani returned to inspiration from expressionist canons.
During World War II, Oriani, a convinced antifascist, clandestinely participated in the partisan fight in the Biella area until the Liberation. After the war, he refused a ministerial position in Rome to return to private life. In the 1950s, he devoted himself intensely to architecture, design, and furnishing, but also resumed painting, revisiting the Parisian period and developing a new cycle of artworks titled "Human Presences". These works are characterized by an archaic and primitivist style, reflecting a search for primordial archetypes.
Oriani's artworks from the 1950s and 1960s were exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions, including one at the Medusa Gallery in Rome in 1964, a retrospective at the Rizzato-Whitwort Gallery in Milan in 1966, and an exhibition of works from the Parisian period at the Donatello Gallery in Palermo in 1971. In these years, Oriani expressed himself through various techniques, including oil on canvas, encaustics, graffiti on plastered cardboard, canvas boards, collage and pastels.
Besides his artistic career, Oriani was also a journalist and editor-in-chief of magazines such as Città Nuova, Natura and Città Futurista, and collaborated with newspapers like Il Secolo XIX and L'Ambrosiano. His commitment to publishing and artistic dissemination is as significant as his pictorial production.
Giuseppe Oriani died in Rome on December 1, 1972. His artistic legacy has been kept alive thanks to the efforts of his heirs, who in 1966 founded the Oriani Foundation in Belgium, later moved to Canada in 2009. The foundation is dedicated to promoting Oriani's artworks and managing an archive and a general catalog of the Master. A catalog of Pippo Oriani's artworks was published in 2009 by Giovanni Lista and Mariastella Margozzi, helping to preserve and spread knowledge of his contribution to 20th-century artwork.
Pippo Oriani was a prominent figure in the Italian artistic scene of the twentieth century. His career, marked by continuous experimentation and deep integration with European avant-gardes, reflects a curious and innovative personality. Oriani was able to combine architectural rigor with pictorial flair, creating artworks ranging from futurism to expressionism, from aeropainting to primitivism, leaving an indelible mark on the history of Italian artwork.