Piero Guccione biography
- PIERO GUCCIONE PAINTER
Piero Guccione, born on May 5, 1935 in Scicli, a small town in eastern Sicily, was a Italian artist polymath, known for his career as a painter, engraver and illustrator.
From an early age, he manifested a great passion for art, abandoning classical studies to devote himself completely to painting and drawing. After graduating from the Catania Art Institute in 1954, he moved to Rome, where he came into contact with the neo-realist painters of the Pincio Gallery, located in Piazza del Popolo.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Piero Guccione actively participated in paleoethnological missions in the Libyan Sahara desert, under the guidance of Professor Fabrizio Mori. The objective of these missions was the survey of rock paintings and graffiti of prehistoric Saharan civilizations. Thanks to this experience, in 1961 the artist organized an exhibition of rock paintings at Columbia University in New York, which was subsequently also hosted in other important American universities.
Piero Guccione's artistic career officially took off on April 23, 1960, when he held his first solo exhibition at the Galleria Elmo From Rome. The exhibition was presented by the art critic Duilio Morosini and marks the beginning of a successful artistic journey. Over the years, Guccione participated in numerous shows and exhibitions both in Italy and abroad, consolidating his reputation as one of the major contemporary Italian painters.
Throughout his career, Piero Guccione stands out for his conceptual interpretation of painting, especially through his famous cycles of works on the theme of the sea. Her marine views, characterized by a realistic but strongly conceptual rendering, convey a feeling of tranquility and invite the viewer to reflection and meditation. The artist believes that the horizon line that joins the sky and the sea can evoke a sense of calm and inner connection.
Despite his national and international success, Piero Guccione always maintains a strong bond with his homeland, Sicily. In 1979, he decided to return to Sicily, settling between Scicli and Modica, where he built a home-studio. This choice makes him a point of reference for other Sicilian artists, giving life to a group called Scicli group, who shares a passion for painting and sculpture.
Throughout his career, he experiments with different artistic techniques, going from oil paint to drawings and pastels. During the eighties, he temporarily abandoned oil painting to devote himself mainly to drawings and pastels, creating works that explore themes such as the carob tree and the homage to Caspar David Friedrich, one of his favorite artists.
Guccione's works have been exhibited in important art institutions, including the Venice Biennial, where he has been invited several times, and the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art from New York. He has received numerous awards and accolades for his artistic career, including the Special Prize for Culture of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in 1999 and the Gold medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic in 2004.
After his death in 2018, his daughter Paola Guccione set up thePiero Guccione Archive, an association dedicated to the promotion and cataloging of the artist's works. The archive organizes exhibitions and other initiatives to make Guccione's works accessible to the public, while preserving his valuable contribution to contemporary art.