Fausto Pirandello
He spent his childhood between Rome and holidays in Sicily, a land that will instill in him the passion for those shades that will later be among the unmistakable characteristics of his painting. In 1917 he received the call to arms, among the Boys of '99, and was forced to interrupt his classical studies even if he was not immediately sent to the front for health reasons. After the war he does not resume his studies and shows the will to devote himself to sculpture even if, always
due to health problems, he will soon be forced to switch to painting. It is therefore in 1920 the decision to leave sculpture permanently and devote himself entirely to painting. In fact, in 1922 he enrolled in the School of Art at the Sallustiani Gardens, opened in Rome by Felice Carena, Attilio Selva, and Orazio Amato, whom he attended until 1923. Here he met the painters Emanuele Cavalli, Onofrio Maritnelli, and Giuseppe Capogrossi, with the which spends long summer stays in Anticoli Corrado. Felice Carena is the one who really introduces Pirandello into the world of Anticoli Corrado, a village in the Alta Valle dell'Aniene very popular among artists of the time in search of picturesque landscapes and posing models, and where in 1924 Fausto opened his first studio. of painting. In 1925 Pirandello made his first public appearance at the III edition of the Roman Biennale, with the work Bagnanti and the following year at the XV International Art Biennial of the City of Venice, with Composition, an exhibition that will see him exhibit continuously from 1932 to 1942. In Paris he frequents the group of Italiens de Paris (especially Giorgio De Chirico and Filippo De Pisis), he gets to know more closely the works of Cézanne, the Cubists (Picasso and Braque) and the painters of the School of Paris (the École de Paris) exhibited in the most prominent Galleries of the city. His first Parisian exhibition is with Emanuele Cavalli and Francesco Di Cocco, in the house of the countess Castellazzy-Bovy; following the Galerie Vildrac (1929), where he sets up his first real solo show and which is followed by a second solo show abroad, in Vienna, in 1929. In 1930 he returns definitively to Rome. During the Thirties he frequently exhibited at the Rome Gallery, at the Lazio Trade Union and at the Roman Quadrennial and binds himself, while always maintaining an individual path, to the environment of the Roman School, within which he will be closer to the group of so-called 'tonalists' such as Giuseeppe Capogrossi, Emanuele Cavalli and Roberto Melli. After the war, exhibition activity intensified, with regular participation in the Roman Quadrennial, the Venice Biennale and private galleries, and not only in the cities of Rome and Milan. During the 1950s he participated in numerous exhibitions in Italy. He exhibits his works in numerous and important personal exhibitions (such as the anthology of Palazzo Barberini, in Rome, in 1951) and collective exhibitions in Italy and abroad, still obtaining many awards: he receives the First Prize at the VI edition of the National Quadrennial of 'Arte di Roma in 1951, the Gualina Prize in the context of the XXVI Venice Biennale of 1952 (which will dedicate a personal room to him in the 1956 edition), the Marzotto Prize in 1953, and the Fiorino Prize in 1957. In 1955 Pirandello held his first solo show in the United States, at the Catherine Viviano Gallery in New York. During the sixties there are still numerous national awards for his long career as an artist: in 1960 Pirandello was in fact among the painters of the Roman School awarded at the XIII National Quadrennial of Art in Rome, in 1964 he received the Michetti Prize and in 1967 the Prize Villa. The originality of his painting is oriented towards a realism of the everyday which manifests itself in even the most pitiless and unpleasant aspects, expressing itself through a dense and rough pictorial material. His vision, substantially intellectualistic, however, translates the even more brutal naturalistic datum into a sort of magical realism with an archaic and metaphysical flavor. His style ranges from cubism, to tonalism, to realistic-expressionist forms. Fausto Pirandello died in his hometown, Rome, on November 30, 1975, at the age of 76.
