Artists

Emilio Vedova was born in Venice in 1919. He is one of the major exponents of Italian informal art of the 1950s and early 1960s.

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Out of passion he began to study painting, nurturing particular admiration for the works of Tintoretto. It is in Spain that he is captured by the beauty of the masterpieces of Goya and Picasso; the latter in particular influences Vedova and it can be seen from the paintings that the artist creates during the Second World War.

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In 1942 he joined the Corrente group (Milanese movement of painters born in 1939 and opposed to the nascent fascist regime). He participates in various Venice Biennales and in 1997 he wins the Golden Lion (Career Award). He makes numerous trips which will allow him to teach art in universities, to then settle in Venice until the day of his disappearance.

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His art tends towards abstractionism; it is characterized by large black and white canvases made thanks to marks and strokes of the mop, which at times seem to give off anger and social rebellion. He immerses himself so much in color that he usually gets the clothes he wears completely dirty during the creation of the works. In the 1970s he built the so-called plurimi (assemblages of wood impregnated with color similar to three-dimensional sculptures), while later, in the 1980s, he painted double circular panels called discs, inspired by the Renaissance period.

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His works are exhibited in numerous international museums such as Mart (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto), National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rome, the Museion Foundation of Bolzano, the Civic Gallery of Modern Art and Contemporanea of Turin and the MAG (Museo Arte Gallarate). The MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York also own some of the painter's works.