Giorgio Morandi
Giorgio Morandi was born in Bologna on 20 July 1890 into a family of the small town bourgeoisie. At a very young age he showed precocious artistic predispositions: in 1907 he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts. Up to 1911 his school career was excellent: in the last two years there were contrasts with the professors, due to the interests of Morandi who developed his own and autonomous style . His artistic references
they range from Cezanne to Henri Rousseau, from Picasso to Andrè Derain. He also develops a great interest in the Italian art of the past: in 1910 he goes to Florence where he can admire the masterpieces of Giotto, Masaccio and Paolo Uccello. He graduated in 1913 and after a year he began to exhibit: at the Hotel Baglioni in Bologna there is a five-man exhibition featuring Morandi, Osvaldo Licini, Mario Bacchelli, Giacomo Vespignani and Severo Pozzati, his fellow academics. In the wake of this exhibition, the relationship with the futurist group with which Morandi will exhibit in the same year at the Sprovieri Gallery in Rome will be born. The war years are the years of his metaphysical season - he becomes one of the leading interpreters of De Chirico's metaphysical school - which has about ten works. In the 1920s, his works became more plastic: the era of still lifes, of the most common objects, began. He does not move from Bologna, however he remains in contact with the intellectual movements of the country. After having taught for many years in municipal drawing schools, in February 1930 he obtained the chair of Engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna for "clear fame" and "without competition"; he will remain until 1956. His presence at the Venetian Biennials is significant, but even more so at the Roman Quadrennial: in 1930 and 1935 Morandi is part of the acceptance commission and is also present as a composer with a few significant works. A particularly significant year is 1939, where at the third edition of the Roman exhibition, Morandi has an entire personal room with 42 oils, 2 drawings and 12 etchings: he gets the second prize for painting, behind the younger Bruno Saetti. The years of the Second World War arrive, the artist, in the summer of 1943, retires displaced to the Apennines where he will develop works dedicated to landscapes. In the 1948 Biennale he received the first prize which renewed the interest of the press and the public in him: the image of Morandi is now considered as that of one of the most important masters of the century. Ill for a long time, Giorgio Morandi died in Bologna on June 18, 1964. His body rests in the Certosa of Bologna.
