Roberto Crippa biography

Roberto Crippa was an Italian painter and sculptor. Born in Monza on 7 May 1921. He studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of Aldo Carpi, Carlo Carrà and Achille Funi. At the beginning of his activity as a painter he was influenced by neocubism and in 1947 he held his first solo exhibition at the Galleria Bergamini in Milan.
In 1950 he became friends with Lucio Fontana and adheres to Spatialism which also includes Gian Carozzi, Giorgio Kaisserlian, Beniamino Joppolo, Milena Milani, Sergio Dangelo, Carlo Cardazzo, Cesare Peverelli. From this period are the series of paintings called Spirali, of an abstract and geometric nature in which the artist created convoluted spaces from which rays were generated which ideally projected outside the two-dimensionality of the canvas. In 1951, Roberto Crippa reached New York, where he met the surrealists Max Ernst, Victor Brauner and Yves Tanguy and exhibited at the Alexander Iolas gallery.
Between 1954 and 1956 the spirals changed towards heavier, incisive and convoluted forms, interlaced with each other, better known as Totem. From 1955, however, he dedicated himself to the production of the so-called Collage, i.e. multi-material paintings in which he initially used iron, bronze and steel and later cork, bark and wood, drawing inspiration from a primitive symbolism. In 1956 he participated in the Venice Biennale as well as various group exhibitions in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Amsterdam and Madrid.
In 1962 he was the victim of a flight accident which left him confined to a wheelchair for almost a year. Having recovered from the accident he began to paint landscapes, Landscape , with the multi-material technique and with the usual abstract style. Also from this period are the Amiantiti, works created with thin sheets of asbestos applied to an engraved table.
Roberto Crippa died in 1972 when his plane crashed near the Bresso airport, during a preparatory flight for the World Championships.