Renzo Vespignani Paintings

Important urban landscape by Italian artist Renzo Vespignani (1924-2001). Oil on canvas measures 99 x 75 cm or 39 x 29.5 inches; 35 x 45 inches framed. Signed and dated lower left. This special piece dates from a time when Vespignani first became interested in painting the edgier parts of Rome's outskirts. The light effects and palette create a mood that is romantic, lurid and menacing: characteristics that clearly attracted the artist to these places. The gold frame suggest a presentation ordinarily found on a School of Paris painting. Frame is antique and was with painting when we acquired it. Frame edge covers signature at lower left so you may want to replace it. Excellent condition with no restoration. Extreme margins of canvas recto have friction marks where it meets frame edge (unseen here). Biography: Renzo Vespignani (1924 - 26 April 2001)[1] was an Italian painter, printmaker and illustrator. Vespignani illustrated the works of Boccaccio, Kafka and T. S. Eliot, among others. In 1956, he co-founded the magazine Citta Aperta ("City Opened") and in 1963, co-founded the group II Pro e II Contro (Pro and Con) for neorealism in figure art. Vespignani was born in Rome, Italy in 1924, and he grew up in a Roman working-class suburb named Portonaccio. He began to paint during the difficult years of the German occupation of Rome, hiding himself at Lino Bianchi Barriviera’s residence. His drawings in 1944 recorded the ravages of German-occupied Rome in realistic detail. Those images, often likened to German Expressionist works, were featured in his first solo exhibition at Rome's Galleria La Margherita in 1945. Meanwhile, he collaborated as a designer with many political-literary reviews done as poetic documentaries, relating to the cinema of Rossellini and Vittorio de Sica. After the war, Vespignani contributed illustrations to political and literary journals. At New York's Hugo Gallery, his works were introduced to the U.S. in 1948. In 1956 he co-founded, with other intellectuals, the review Citta Aperta ("City Opened"), a magazine concerning the city culture’s problems. At this time, his work had begun to focus on life in the harsh neighborhoods of Rome's periphery, displaying a connection with the films and literature of Italian Neorealism. In 1963, with the painters, Ferroni, Ennio Calabria, Giuseppe Guerreschi...