Murano Glass Aquarium by Riccardo Licata for Gino Cenedese, Italy 1960s

Riccardo Licata was born in Turin, Italy, on 20 December 1929. Licata lived with his family for a short period in Paris. They then moved to Rome, where he remained until 1945. Since 1946, he has lived between Venice and Paris. In 1951, he had his first one-man show in Venice. After his studies at an arts high school and at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, he received a scholarship in 1957 from the French government to experiment with color engraving and new techniques. The same year, he became Gino Severini’s assistant at the Ecole d’Art Italienne in Paris, beginning an impressive career as a teacher. In 1961, he married Maria Battistella, singer and teacher in the music of the Renacimiento. He started to teach at the Atelier de mosaïque in Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1969, he became a Professor at La Sorbonne and the Goetz Academy. From 1972–92, he was a Professor at Ecole Internationale de la gravure expérimentale in Venice and Ecole Américaine d'Architecture in Fontainebleau Painter, engraver, mosaicist, sculptor and set designer. Licata has participated in the biennials of Venice, São Paulo in Brazil, Tokyo, Paris, Ljubljana, Alexandria in Egypt as well as in the Rome Quadrennial and the Milano Triennial. He has had one-man shows in important cities both in Italy and around the world. Of particular importance are his large 1990 traveling show in Spain curated by Enzo di Martino and his retrospective exhibition at Venice’s Ca’ Pesaro Museum of Modern Art. His works are found in museums of modern art in Chicago, Milan, Florence, Mulhouse, New York, Paris, Warsaw, Stockholm, Vienna and of course in Venice. His work has been profoundly influenced by regularly attending musical events like those at Teatro la Fenice or the Venice Biennial’s Festival Of Contemporary Music. Licata's unmistakable pictorial-graphic writing that began to take shape in the 1950s was inspired by music.