Domenico Cantatore

Domenico Cantatore (16 March 1906 - 22 May 1998) was an Italian painter and illustrator. His style, somewhat naive, derives influences from Cezanne, Matisse, and expressionists. His topics are mainly people, with a large number of reclining Odalisque.

Domenico was born in Ruvo di Puglia in Apulia. He moved to Rome in 1922, and from there in 1924 to Milan, where he began to paint, befriended the art critic Raffaele Carrieri, and frequented the artistic salons of Margherita Sarfatti. In 1929, he held his first solo show at Galleria Milan and met Carlo Carrà.

In 1932, he travelled to Paris. The next year, Edoardo Persico help him set up an exhibition, mostly drawings, at the Brera and the next year 1934 at the Galleria del Milione.

Upon returning to Milan, for a few years he dedicated himself to writing. He began a long friendship with Salvatore Quasimodo. He joint the Novecento Italiano movement of Giuseppe Migneco, Aligi Sassu, and Bruno Cassinari, but also was somewhat aloof from the politics.

In 1940, he was appointed to Professor of Figure Design at the Liceo Artistico. That year, his painting Woman dressing won the Premio Principe Umberto. In 1947, he won the premio Modena with Woman Sewing and in 1950, the premio Suzzara. In 1950 he was named Professor of Painting at the Brera Academy. He continued to exhibit throughout the 1950s, at the Venice Biennale, the Rome Quadrennial, and the Barbaroux, Genova, Annunciata, and Gianferrari Galleries.

In 1959, he gained the public commission for twenty windows in the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena. He died in Paris during a visit to see the places of his youth.

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