Giuseppe Ajmone

Giuseppe Ajmone (Carpignano Sesia, 1923 – Romagnano Sesia, 2005) was one of the leading figures in Italian painting of the second half of the twentieth century. Trained in Milan's postwar artistic milieu, he developed a personal style in which landscapes, human figures, and still lifes became ways to explore light, color, and memory. From his early experiences with realism and post-Cubism to the greater freedom and lyricism of his mature work, Ajmone maintained a deep connection with the natural world while continuing to experiment. In his paintings, bodies sometimes seem to emerge from the paint itself, while river landscapes become images suspended between observation and memory. Alongside painting, he produced a significant body of graphic work, also connected with Italian poetry and literature.

biography and artistic training

Giuseppe Ajmone was born on February 17, 1923, in Carpignano Sesia, in the province of Novara. His artistic training began in 1937 in the studio of sculptor Riccardo Mella, where he became acquainted with drawing and the study of form. In 1941, he moved to Milan and enrolled at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, attending classes taught by Achille Funi and Carlo Carrà. During his years at the academy, he met Ennio Morlotti, Bruno Cassinari, and other painters interested in renewing figurative art. These were the war years, marked by profound political and cultural changes.

The postwar period, Corrente, and the Beyond Guernica manifesto

In the 1940s, Giuseppe Ajmone came into contact with the artistic milieu of Corrente, the movement that had brought together painters and intellectuals opposed to cultural isolation and interested in developments in European art. Pablo Picasso's painting, particularly Guernica, was a key point of reference for many young artists. In 1944, Ajmone helped launch the magazine Numero, which later continued under the title Pittura. In 1946, he was among the signatories of the Manifesto of Realism, known as Beyond Guernica, alongside artists and intellectuals including Ennio Morlotti, Emilio Vedova, and Giovanni Testori.

From Picasso's lessons to the painting of Bonnard and Cézanne

In the late 1940s, Giuseppe Ajmone went through a period of transformation. L's interest in the post-Cubist construction of the image gradually gave way to a painting more attentive to color, light, and the sensations evoked by reality. Artists such as Paul Cézanne, Pierre Bonnard, and Georges Braque became important points of reference. From Cézanne, Ajmone drew above all an interest in the structure of the landscape and the relationships between forms. Reality remained the starting point, but was transformed through the act of painting and emotional perception.

The landscapes of Giuseppe Ajmone: nature and the Sesia River

Landscape occupies a central place in Giuseppe Ajmone’s work, especially from the late 1950s onward. Nature is not depicted as an immobile backdrop, but as a living presence, shaped by light and atmospheric changes. River landscapes and places connected to the Sesia area, to which the artist remained deeply attached, are particularly important. In his paintings, water, riverbanks, vegetation, and open spaces are often translated into compositions in which forms seem to emerge slowly from the pictorial material. A significant example is The Sesia from 1967, a painting held in the art collection of the Chamber of Deputies.

Giuseppe Ajmone between Informalism and New Figuration

L'Ajmone’s painting evolved through some of the major artistic movements in postwar Italy. In the 1950s, his work drew close to a sensibility that critics associated with the last Naturalists and particular developments in Informalism. At this stage, the pictorial material became freer, and representation lost some of its traditional definition. Unlike completely abstract painting, however, Ajmone maintained a constant connection with the visible world. In the 1960s and 1970s, this relationship with reality developed further, drawing closer to the movements of the New Figuration.

Female nudes: the body between light and memory

Alongside landscapes, the female nude is one of the fundamental themes in Giuseppe Ajmone’s painting. L'artist explores this subject over several decades, developing compositions in which the body takes on a presence that is sometimes luminous and delicate, sometimes more intense and dramatic. The figures are not always defined through precise drawing. In 1982, at the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan, the artist presented an important group of artworks dedicated to the so-called drowned nudes, inspired by a news story that took place in the Romagnano Sesia area. The body is not merely a pictorial subject, but becomes the means through which the artist addresses pain, fragility, and memory.

Still lifes and flowers

Another important chapter in Giuseppe Ajmone's output is his still lifes. Flowers and everyday objects offered the artist an opportunity to explore the relationship between color, light, and composition. The arrangement of the elements, the tones, and the quality of the paint combine to create an image in which reality appears transformed. Ajmone, however, uses these references to develop an independent vision, in which color becomes the primary means of interpreting the subject.

Giuseppe Ajmone's graphic artworks and their relationship with literature

Giuseppe Ajmone's output was not limited to painting on canvas. From 1946 to 1949, Ajmone collaborated with the Einaudi publishing house, also working on the artistic presentation of its publications. In 1947, he created a series of etchings related to Cesare Pavese's Hard Labor, while in 1949 he turned to Giacomo Leopardi's L'Infinity. These experiences testify to a profound dialogue between image and word. Among his most significant projects are the portfolios Album Leaves from 1970 and Six Nudes from 1977, as well as works connected to texts by Italo Calvino, Antonio Machado, and other authors. Graphic art therefore constitutes an important part of his artistic career, through which it is possible to trace the evolution of his language beyond the canvas.

artworks from the 1970s and 1980s: A More Dramatic Style of Painting

In the 1970s, Giuseppe Ajmone's painting developed an increasingly intense emotional dimension. His relationship with nature and the human figure remained central, but some artworks introduced references to historical events and painful experiences. Works from this period include Nicevò, Another Crime, and The Great Studio, which were also presented in major exhibitions devoted to his work. His painterly language retained its freedom of gesture and sensitivity to color, but the image sometimes took on a more unsettling character.

Exhibitions, Biennales, and Awards

Giuseppe Ajmone's career was marked by an intense exhibition schedule in Italy and abroad. In 1948, he took part in the Venice Biennale for the first time, returning in 1950 and 1952. In 1951, he received the Senatore Borletti Prize for young Italian painters and began collaborating with the Milan Triennale. In 1976, critic Roberto Tassi devoted the study The Light of Things to his painting, a title that effectively sums up one of the central aspects of his research. In 1997, another exhibition in Arona surveyed the artworks created between 1943 and 1997.

The final years and artistic legacy

From the 1980s onward, Giuseppe Ajmone made his home in Romagnano Sesia, maintaining an increasingly close connection with his place of origin. He died in Romagnano Sesia on April 8, 2005. From post-Cubism to Art Informel and finally New Figuration, Ajmone maintained a constant interest in visible reality and its transformation through color. Today, the Giuseppe Ajmone Association and the artist’s archive are responsible for studying, documenting, and promoting his work. Giuseppe Ajmone’s artworks retain a special ability to engage viewers because they do not merely describe what appears before their eyes.