Francesco Somaini

Francesco Somaini (6 August 1926 in Lomazzo – 19 November 2005 in Como) was an Italian sculptor.

Francesco Somaini was born in Lomazzo (Como) on 6 August 1926. He attended Giacomo Manzù’s courses at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera and debuted in 1948 at the National Exhibition of Figurative Arts, promoted by the Quadrennial of Rome. He graduated in law at the Pavia University in 1949. And in 1950, he took part in the Venice Biennale for the first time. After a period of reflection upon the experiences of the international contemporary sculpture, he became interested in abstractionism and, in the mid-1950s, achieved an autonomy of language with sculptures realized in “ferric conglomerate” (Canto Aperto, Forza del nascere), art work that marked his entrance in the Concrete Art Movement (MAC) and preluded the great informal period.

He imposed himself upon critics’ attention in 1956, thanks to his participation in the XXVIII Biennale of Venice. He reached success at a worldwide level in 1959 with the exhibition hall at the V Biennale of San Paolo of Brazil, where he gained the first international prize for sculpture: this international recognition allowed him to access the United States art market. In the 1960 he was invited to set up his own exhibition hall at the XXX Venice Biennale. In the following year, he participated in the Deuxième Biennale of Paris, where he was awarded the first prize of the French Art Criticism. During this period, his sculptures met the favor of critics like Giulio Carlo Argan and Michel Tapié. Being interested in experimenting with different materials, he cast his works also in iron, lead and pewter, attacking them with the blowtorch, and finally polishing their concave parts in order to accentuate their expressive drive. This was the time of Martirii and Feriti, presented in the various personal exhibitions set up at the National Gallery of Turin, at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, at the Blu Gallery of Rome and in all the most important international collective exhibitions of sculpture.

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