Antonio Scialoja
Painter among the most representative of Italian abstract art. He very early began to demonstrate a versatile artistic talent, both as a painter and as a poet. In 1939 a drawing by him was reported by the jury of the Rome Quadriennale and in 1940 he made his first solo show in Genoa. During the war and before participating in the Resistance he exhibited in Rome with Giulio Turcato and Emilio Vedova. From the 1950s he abandoned the expressionist and cubist ways
origins and definitively finds its way into informal abstractionism. He participates in the Venice Biennale in 1950, 1952 and 1954. Between 1955 and 1965 he travels and stays in America and in Paris, exhibits at the Viviano Gallery in Manhattan, achieving international fame and notoriety and coming into contact with the other protagonists of abstract expressionism, befriending Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. In 1964 he was present at the Venice Biennale and in 1966 he made a personal exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery. During the 70s Scialoja will go through a long period of pause and reflection to resume with incredible vigor and inspiration from 1982 until his death. It seems that this new lighting was due to the artist's vision of Goya's paintings at the Prado. In fact, he returned to the Biennale with great success in 1984 with a personal room. In this last phase of his life are placed the works of him considered happiest realization. In 1991 a large anthology was dedicated to him at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. Lecturer and director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he had as students many of the best-known names in Italian contemporary art: Mario Ceroli, Pino Pascali and Jannis Kounellis.
