Piero Guccione

Piero Guccione
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Born	(1935-05-05)May 5, 1935 Scicli
Died	October 6, 2018(2018-10-06) (aged 83)
Nationality	Italian
Citizenship	Italy
Occupation	Painter Engraver Illustrator

Piero Guccione (Scicli, 5 May 1935 - Modica, 6 October 2018) was an Italian painter, engraver and illustrator.

Biography

Piero Guccione was born on 5 May 1935 in Scicli, a small town in the south-eastern part of Sicily, in the province of Ragusa. The third son of a petty bourgeois family, his father was a tailor and his mother a housewife. He attended the Art School of Comiso for a year and then moved to the Art Institute of Catania, from which he graduated in 1954.

In October 1954, following the sudden death of his father during the summer, Guccione decided to enrol at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, which he attended for only one month. He lived in a boarding house in San Francesco a Ripa, supporting himself with the subsidy of 500 Lire which he received from a public school of advertising posters. In the first two years of his permanence in Rome, Guccione almost never painted. He worked as a graphic designer in a studio, where he had the opportunity to experiment with new forms of expression such as advertising posters, caricatures for newspapers, furniture designs.

1960s to 1970s

From 1958 to 1969, Guccione participated in paleontological missions for the survey of rock paintings in the Libyan Sahara desert, with the team of palethnologist Fabrizio Mori (ethnographer). In 1961, at the request of the American Federation of Arts, Guccione organised an exhibition of the rock paintings at Columbia University in New York, subsequently hosted in other major U.S. universities.

On 23 April 1960, Guccione held his first personal exhibition at the Galleria Elmo in Rome, presented by the art critic Duilio Morosini

In 1962, Guccione appeared, in the role of himself, in the film I giorni contati by Elio Petri.

From 1962 to 1964, Guccione was part of the group Il pro e il contro , together with painters Ugo Attardi, Ennio Calabria, Fernando Farulli, Giuseppe Guerreschi, Alberto Gianquinto and Renzo Vespignani and art critics Antonio Del Guercio, Dario Micacchi and Morosini. In November 1962, Guccione exhibited his second personal exhibition at the Galleria La Nuova Pesa in Rome.

In 1963, Guccione illustrated Il rosso e il nero by Stendhal. In the same year, one of his works was exhibited at the exhibition Contemporary Italian Paintings, displayed in some cities in Australia. In 1963-64, he exhibited at Peintures italiennes d'aujourd'hui , organised throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

In April 1965, Guccione held his third personal exhibition, presented by Dario Micacchi and Renato Guttuso, who defined him as "the most of a painter to appear in Rome after Turcato (and Mafai)" . The year 1966 marked Guccione's first participation in the Venice Biennale, where he was invited five more times: in 1972, 1978, 1982, 1988, and 2011. In 1966, he also became assistant to Renato Guttuso at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and, later, holder of a professorship until 1969.

In 1968, Guccione exhibited for the first time at the Galleria il Gabbiano in Rome, where he presented the works of the Reflected City cycle including landscapes reflected on the bodywork of his Volkswagen. Between 1969 and 1970, he painted the short series Waiting to leave consisting of nine canvases numbered from 1 to 9, exhibited at the Galleria Forni in Bologna in April 1970. In June 1971, the city of Ferrara dedicated to him a first anthology at Palazzo dei Diamanti with the exhibition of eighty works created between 1962 and 1970, presented by Enzo Siciliano. A few months later,a first monograph dedicated to the artist was published, again edited by Enzo Siciliano . He participated in the 10th and 12th editions of the Rome Quadriennale (1972 and 1992).

At the end of the 1960s, Guccione built a summer house in southeastern Sicily, where his stays became more frequent and prolonged. In 1973, renowned writer Leonardo Sciascia, presenting an exhibition of his in Palermo, coined the term platitude to define Guccione's style as an escape from sensations to go beyond time. In 1976, Guccione exhibited for the first time in Paris, with a personal exhibition at Galerie Claude Bernard where he would be invited again in 1983, 1988 and 1998. In 1979, he held a chairmanship at the Academy of Fine Arts of Catania and, in the same year, he returned to live in the Sicilian countryside (Contrada Quartarella), between Scicli and Modica where he would spend the rest of his life. Together with the painter and close friend, Franco Sarnari, he established the artist group Il Gruppo di Scicli.

1980s to 1990s

In the period 1981-1985, Guccione began a new artistic phase, largely abandoning oil painting, which he would resume years later, to devote himself mainly to drawings and pastels. In 1981, at the Galleria Il Gabbiano in Rome, he exhibited twenty-one pastels dedicated to Carrubo: images and reflections around a dying tree . In the same year, he illustrated In praise of the shadow by Roberto Tassi , with a series of pastels on the theme of the sky and sunsets. In 1984, again at the Galleria Il Gabbiano, Guccione presented a cycle of pastels Journey around Caspar David Friedrich , signed by thirty-three plates, a tribute to the German artist Caspar David Friedrich, whom he admired in 1977 in Paris at an exhibition on Romanticist painting. In 1983, Enrico Crispolti presented a first anthology on graphics from 1961 to 1983 at the Giulia Gallery in Rome , simultaneously but independently, from a similar exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art of the Municipality of Paternò (Ct).

In 1984, ten years after their first meeting in Palermo, Leonardo Sciascia presented two exhibitions by Guccione: the drawings of Diario Parigino at the Galleria Bambaia (Busto Arsizio, Milan) and a series of pastels depicting the Sicilian landscape at the La Palette Gallery in Palermo, where Guccione's works were exhibited together with photographs by Giuseppe Leone. In Palazzo Dugnani, with the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, the personal exhibition After the West Wind took place in 1986 . In 1987, he illustrated the American edition of The Leopard|Il Gattopardo by Tomasi di Lampedusa, presented by the writer Leonardo Sciascia . The Italian pavilion at the 1988 Venice Biennale paid homage to Guccione with a personal room, where the large painting The Last Sea was exhibited. In the same year, Guccione was a finalist together with Burri, Schifano and Perez at the Artist of the Year award in Naples, promoted by 120 Italian art critics. In 1989, Guccione's second anthology took place at the Modern Art Gallery of the Municipality of Conegliano (Treviso) curated by Marco Goldin.

In 1980, Guccione exhibited at the Odyssia Gallery in New York City, presented in the catalog by Italian writer Alberto Moravia. In 1984, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenWashington D.C. invited him to the international exhibition Drawings 1974-84 . In 1985, Guccione was invited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, for an anthology of graphics on the Mezzanine Gallery. He presents his works in the main international art fairs: at the Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) in Paris in 1979, at Art Basel in 1984, at The Armory Show (art fair) in New York City in 1988, and at C.LA.E. in Chicago in 1990. In 1985, Guccione illustrated the Agenda Olivetti 1985 Edition. In 1986, he worked on fifteen pastels for the short story Senso by Camillo Boito, which was released in 1986 by Edizioni Franca May, with an introduction by Alberto Moravia. Simultaneously with the illustration of Senso , he made seventeen pastels, of which ten were published in a volume of poems by Giorgio Soavi, printed by Grafica dei Greci in 1987. In 1989, Michael Peppiatt presented a personal exhibition by Guccione at the James Goodman Gallery in New York, while in the same year an important monograph was published and curated by Enzo Siciliano and Susan Sontag for the series " Great art monographs "by Fabbri editori. In 1991, Guccione exhibited at the Galleria il Gabbiano the sketches for the scenographies of Norma , by Vincenzo Bellini, staged in May 1990 at the Teatro Massimo in Catania under the direction of Mauro Bolognini.

In 1992, a retrospective entitled Variations was sponsored by the Regional Province at the Palazzo dei Leoni in Messina. In 1993, Guccione participated in the exhibition Do all roads lead to Rome? curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. In 1993, in occasion of the 64th Literary Prize organised by the Municipality of Viareggio, Guccione presented an anthology on the theme of the sea at Palazzo Paolina. In 1995, the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Conegliano (Treviso) organised a retrospective exhibition curated by Marco Goldin titled "The colors of the sea 1967/95". The following year, a pastel retrospective exhibition titled "Pastelli 1974-1996" (curated by Marco Goldin) was presented at Villa Foscarini Rossi a Stra (Treviso). In 1998, an anthology was presented at Palazzo Reale (Milan). In 1995, Guccione was appointed as academic at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. In 1999, together with conductor Riccardo Muti and neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini, Guccione received the Special Prize for Culture from the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers (Italy). In the same year, he received the Carlo Levi Award at Aliano (Matera).

2000s

In 2000, together with Franco Sarnari, Piero Roccasalva and Giuseppe Colombo, Guccione created a canvas with a diameter of 440 cm for the vault of the hall of the Garibaldi Theatre in Modica. In 2001, the publishing house "Il Cigno GG Edizioni di Roma" re-published Galileo Galilei's original work Discorsi circa a due Nuove Scienze , with a preface by Pope John Paul II and including ten engravings by Piero Guccione . In 2004, former President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi awarded Guccione the merit of art and culture by the Presidency of the Italian Republic. In July 2006, Palazzo Madama in Rome, seat of the Senate of the Italian Republic, welcomed Guccione's Black and Blue , a large canvas depicting the sea, on the wall of the main Sala Italia. In 2008, the cities of Milan and Rome celebrated Guccione by dedicating to him an anthological exhibition, respectively at the Royal Palace of Milan curated by Vittorio Sgarbi and at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna curated by Maurizio Calvesi (essayist) .

In 2006, the Bufalino Foundation organised a exhibition titled Bufalino and Guccione , in memory of the tenth anniversary of the writer's death and highlighting his close relationship with Guccione. In January 2010, the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome welcomed altarpieces for its Baptistry painted by Guccione.

In 2011, the director Nunzio Massimo Nifosì presented the documentary Piero Guccione, Verso L'infinito at Rome Film Fest, at Festival de Cine Italiano de Madrid and at the Venice Biennale. In July, the documentary received the 2017 Pio Alferano Award at the Castello dell'Abate (Castellabate, Salerno).

On 5 May 2018, the Archivio Piero Guccione was established in Rome and is chaired by Piero Guccione's daughter, Paola Guccione.

Piero Guccione died on 6 October 2018, at the age of 83, in his home-studio in the countryside of Modica. Since 9 October 2021, Guccione's ashes are kept in a tomb in the monumental part of the cemetery of Scicli (RG).

Awards and acknowledgments

Guccione has received numerous awards and prizes:

• in 1988 he was a finalist for the Artist of the Year award, promoted by 120 Italian critics, in Naples (with Alberto Burri | Burri, Mario Schifano | Schifano and Perez)
• in 1995 he was appointed Academician of San Luca
• in 1999 he received the Special Prize for Culture from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers
• in 2004 he received the Gold Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic as a merit of art and culture

Personal Exhibitions

• 1960 Rome, Galleria Elmo
• 1962 Rome, Galleria La Nuova Pesa
• 1965 Rome, Galleria La Nuova Pesa
• 1966 Milan, Galleria Toninelli
• 1968 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano
• 1970 Bologna, Galleria Forni, Attese di partire
• 1970 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano, 40 Disegni per “Paese Sera”
• 1971 Ferrara, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Mostra antologica
• 1972 Milan, Galleria Bergamini
• 1973 Bologna, Grafica Dürer; Comune di Alessandria
• 1973 Milan, Galleria L’Incontro
• 1973 Palermo, Centro d’Arte 74
• 1973 Rome, Grafica dei Greci
• 1974 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano, Le linee del mare (pastels)
• 1976 Paris, Galerie Claude Bernard
• 1976 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano, Pastelli
• 1978 Acqui Terme, Bottega d’Arte
• 1979 Busto Arsizio, Galleria Bambaia
• 1979 Paris, FIAC (with Galleria Il Gabbiano)
• 1979 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano, Sei studi su una fotografia di Bacon (pastels)
• 1980 New York, Odyssia Gallery
• 1981 Busto Arsizio, Galleria Bambaia, Elogio dell’ombra (pastels)
• 1981 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano, Immagini e riflessioni intorno ad un albero che muore (pastels)
• 1983 Comune di Paternò, Antologia di grafica
• 1983 Paris, Galerie Claude Bernard
• 1983 Rome, Galleria Giulia, L’opera grafica 1961-1983
• 1984 Busto Arsizio, Galleria Bambaia, Diario Parigino (pastels)
• 1984 Chicago, CIAE (con la Galleria Il Gabbiano)
• 1984 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano; Milan, Galleria Bergamini; Bologna, Galleria Forni, Omaggio a Friedrich (pastels)
• 1985 Basel, Kunstmesse, ART 16, (with Galleria Il Gabbiano), Geometria e malinconia delle pietre
• 1985 Milan, Palazzo Dugnani, Dopo il vento d’occidente (pastelli)
• 1985 New York, The Mezzanine Gallery; The Metropolitan Museum, Antologia di grafica
• 1986 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano, Dopo il vento d’occidente (pastelli)
• 1987 Rome, Galleria Il Gabbiano (Tridente due), Illustrazioni per Senso di Camillo Boito (pastels)
• 1988 Busto Arsizio, Galleria Bambaia, Fogli sparsi (pastels)
• 1988 Chicago, CIAE, (with Galleria Il Gabbiano)
• 1988 New York, Art at The Armony (with Galleria Il Gabbiano)
• 1988 Paris, Galerie Claude Bernard, Pastels
• 1988 Parma, Galleria La Sanseverina, Guccione 1983-1987
• 1988 Rome, Galleria Dei Greci, Piero Guccione per Giorgio Soavi
• 1988 Venice, XLIII Biennale d’arte, Italian Pavilion, Vicenza, Albanese Arte, Mostra di grafica
• 1989 Bari, Galleria La Panchetta
• 1989 Milan, Galleria Bergamini, Nero e Azzurro
• 1989 New York, James Goodman Gallery
• 1989 Conegliano (Treviso), Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Piero Guccione: opere 1957/1989
• 1990 Catania, Foyer del Teatro Bellini, Bozzetti e scene per Norma del centenario
• 1990 Lisbon, Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Portogallo, Palazzo FOZ, Antologica di grafica
• 1990 Parma, Galleria La Sanseverina, Il mio piccolo Louvre: 18 disegni da Masaccio a Michelangelo
• 1990 Sciacca (Agrigento), Ex Convento di San Francesco, Mostra antologica
• 1991 Milan, Galleria Appiani Arte 32, Bozzetti e scene per Norma del centenario
• 1991 Palermo, Galleria La Tavolozza, Mostra antologica
• 1991 Galleria Il Gabbiano, Bozzetti e scene per Norma del centenario
• 1992 Messina, Palazzo dei Leoni, Variazioni, Mostra antologica
• 1992 Rome, Galleria dei Greci, De Pisis. Ultime poesie
• 1993 Viareggio, Palazzo Paolina, LXIV Premio Viareggio, Omaggio al Maestro
• 1994 Catania, Accademia di Belle Arti, Antologia di grafica
• 1995 Conegliano (Treviso), Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, I colori del mare
• 1996 Bologna, XX Arte Fiera, (with Galleria Il Gabbiano)
• 1997 Bologna, Galleria Forni, 22 disegni per Serafino Amabile Guastella
• 1997 Stra (Venezia), Villa Foscarini Rossi, Guccione – pastelli 1974-1996
• 1998 Bologna, Galleria Forni, Per Tristano e Isotta di Wagner
• 1998 Milan, Palazzo Reale, Guccione – opere recenti
• 1998 Paris, Galerie Claude Bernard
• 1998 Palermo, Villa Lampedusa, Piero Guccione. Opera Grafica 1961-1998
• 1999 Catania, Castello Ursino, Museo Civico, Piero Guccione a Castello Ursino – Opere dal 1957 al 1999
• 1999 Conegliano (Treviso), Palazzo Sarcinelli, Guccione. D’après
• 1999 Florence, Stamperia della Bezuga, Un pittore e un orientalista, Piero Guccione e Franco Battiato
• 2000 Udine, Stamperia Albicocco, Grafica
• 2001 Palermo, Palazzo Ziino, Piero Guccione. Opere 1962-2000
• 2002 Siracusa, Chiesa La Badia, Da un’edizione de Il Cigno G. G. sui Discorsi intorno a due Nuove Scienze di Galileo Galilei
• 2003 Conegliano (Treviso), Palazzo Sarcinelli, Opere recenti
• 2004 Brussels, European Parliament; Palermo, Loggiato San Bartolomeo; Bologna, Palazzo d’Accursio; Berlin, Italian Embassy, Pittura tra Poesia e Teatro
• 2005 Monza, Autodromo Nazionale; Saint Petersburg, Museo dell’Accademia delle Belle Arti; Barcelona, Museo della Cattedrale; Rome, Palazzo Venezia; Ragusa Ibla, Palazzo Donnafugata, Piero Guccione pittore
• 2006 Piero Guccione. Fiori et amori, Galleria Bambaia, Busto Arsizio (Va)
• 2006 Piero Guccione. Intorno all'orizzonte, Galleria 61, Palermo
• 2008 Milan, Palazzo Reale, Piero Guccione. Opere 1963-2008
• 2008 Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Piero Guccione
• 2010 Rome, Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, Le pale del Battistero
• 2010 Genova, Palazzo Ducale, Guccione. Il Mediterraneo. Opere 1973-2010
• 2011 Palermo, Palazzo Sant’Elia, Piero Guccione. Le Opere Monumentali
• 2015 Modica, Ex Convento del Carmine, Piero Guccione. Lo stupore ed il mistero del creato
• 2017 Castellabate (Salerno), Castello dell’Abate, Premio Pio Alferano; Piero Guccione. L’armonia dell’invisibile
• 2019 Mendrisio, Museo d’arte, Piero Guccione. La pittura come il mare

Illustrations of literary works

Guccione illustrated some literary works, including:

• Stendhal, Il rosso e il nero, Parenti Editore, Firenze, 1963
• Marco Tullio Cicerone|M. T. Cicerone, Le Catilinarie, Curcio Editore, Roma, 1968
• M. T. Cicerone, La Lex Manilia|legge Manilia, Curcio Editore, Roma, 1968
• Camillo Boito, Senso, Franca May Edizioni, Roma, 1986
• Giorgio Soavi, Tutte le volte che lei se ne va, Edizioni Grafica dei Greci, Roma, 1987
• Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard, The Limited Edition Clup, 1988
• De Pisis, Ultime poesie (1948-1950), Edizioni Grafica dei Greci, Roma, 1989
• Gesualdo Bufalino, Rondò della felicità, Edizioni La Corda Pazza di Lillo Gullo e Flora Graiff, Trento, 1991
• Giovanni Verga, Cavalleria rusticana (novella)|Cavalleria rusticana, Il Cigno GG Edizioni, 2000
• Galileo Galilei, Discorso intorno a due nuove scienze, Edizioni Erreti, Bagnara di Romagna (RA), 1995

Bibliography selection

• Siciliano, Enzo (1971). Guccione (monografia). Roma. Il Gabbiano Edizione d’Arte.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Giuffré, Guido (1981). Piero Guccione – Le linee del mare e della terra. Roma. Carte Segrete.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Tassi, Roberto (1981). Elogio dell’ombra. Busto Arsizio. Edizione Bambaia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sciascia, Leonardo (1984). Guccione. Diario parigino. Busto Arsizio. Edizione Bambaia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Moravia, Alberto (1986). Introduzione per l’illustrazione di “Senso”. Roma. Franca May Edizioni.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sgarbi, Vittorio (1989). La stanza dipinta. Palermo. Novecento Editrice.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Isella, Dante (1988). Fogli Sparsi. Busto Arsizio. Edizione Bambaia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Siciliano, Enzo (1989). Guccione: la pittura della vita in Guccione (monografia). Milano. Edizione Fabbri Editori.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Motta, Antonio (1990). Piero Guccione. Caltanissetta. Salvatore Sciascia editore.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Siciliano, Enzo (1991). Un’elegia della luce in Piero Guccione, bozzetti e scene per la Norma del centenario. Milano. Fabbri Editori.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sontag, Susan (1993). Piero Guccione. Germania. Edizioni Control Data.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Motta, Antonio (1996). Con Bufalino nell’atelier di Guccione. Catania. Il Girasole Edizioni.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Nifosì, Paolo (2001). Dieci fogli dell’umana esistenza, in Discorsi intorno a due nuove scienze. Roma. Edizioni il Cigno.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Goldin, Marco (2002). L’arco della luce. Natura e pittura nel secondo Novecento in Italia, 2 vol. Treviso. Linea d’ombra Libri.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Goldin, Marco (2003). Il celeste della sera. Scritti su Piero Guccione. Milano. Skira.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Guccione, Piero (2003). Stesure. Catania. Il Girasole Edizioni.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Bufalino, Gesualdo (2006). L’estasi dello sguardo, Bufalino e Guccione. Comiso. Fondazione Gesulado Bufalino.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Granzotto, Giovanni (2006). Le pale della luce, in Piero Guccione. Le pale per il Battistero. Roma. Edizioni Il Cigno.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Nifosì, Paolo (2010). Piero Guccione. Ragusa. Centro Studi Feliciano Rossitto.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Gualandi, Manuel (2012). L’atelier di Guccione. Discorso sulla pittura. Torino. Allemandi.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Peppiatt, Michael (2012). Interviews with Artists: 1966-2012. New Haven/Londra. Yale University Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Goldin, Marco (2015). Piero Guccione (monografia). Conegliano (Treviso). Edizioni Linea d’ombra.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sgarbi, Vittorio (2019). Il Novecento. Da Lucio Fontana a Piero Guccione. Milano. edizione La Nave di Teseo.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Elena Li Causi, Mediterraneo orizzontale in Atlante (Treccani), 25 luglio 2021

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