Renato Guttuso, (Bagheria 1911-Roma 1987)
Nudo , c. 1957
Oil on canvas
cm 71x114
Private collection
Renato Guttuso (26 December 1912 – 18 January 1987) was
an Italian painter. His best-known works include Flight from Etna (1938–39),
Crucifixion (1941) and La Vucciria (1974). Guttuso also designed for the
theatre and did illustrations for books. Those for Elizabeth David’s Italian
Food (1954), introduced him to many in the English-speaking world. A fierce
anti-Fascist, "he developed out of Expressionism and the harsh light of
his native land to paint landscapes and social commentary."
He was
born in Bagheria, near Palermo in Sicily, but from 1937 lived and worked
largely in Rome. In his youth he joined the Gruppo universitario fascista, but
later he became an anti-fascist and atheist. He joined the banned Italian
Communist Party (PCI) in 1940 and left Rome to become an active participant in
the partisan struggle from 1943. He was also an opponent to the Mafia. In 1972
Guttuso was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. In 1976 he was elected to the
Italian Senate as a PCI representative for the Sicilian constituency of
Sciacca.
Guttuso
became a member of an artistic movement named "Corrente". The
movement stood for free and open attitudes, in opposition to the official
culture, and chose a strong anti-fascist position in thematic choices through
the years of the Spanish Civil War.
Mimise Dotti-Guttuso died on 6 October 1986. Guttuso was
soon to follow his wife. He died in Rome of lung cancer at the age of 75 on 18
January 1987. On his deathbed, he allegedly embraced again the Christian faith
with which he had been critical. However, there are doubts as to what really
happened—in his last months, when he was bedridden, a circle of politicians and
priests excluded his oldest friends from his villa. He donated many of his
works to his hometown Bagheria, which are now housed in the museum of the Villa
Cattolica. More
on Renato Guttuso
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