Renato Guttuso

Aldo Renato Guttuso (26 December 1911 – 18 January 1987) was an Italian painter and politician. He is considered to be among the most important Italian artists of the 20th century and is among the key figures of Italian expressionism. His art is characterized by social and political commentary, and as a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) he became its senator for two legislatures, from 1976 to 1983, during Enrico Berlinguer's secretariat.

His best-known works include Flight from Etna (1938–39), Crucifixion (1941), and La Vucciria (1974). Guttuso also designed for the theatre (including sets and costumes for Histoire du Soldat, Rome, 1940) 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".

Biography

Early life

Guttuso was born on 26 December, 1911 in Bagheria, near Palermo. He was the son of Gioacchino Guttuso, land surveyor and amateur watercolorist, and Giuseppina d'Amico. Guttuso's birth date is often incorrectly listed as January 2, 1912, as this is when Giuseppina reported his birth to the registry office.

Guttuso began signing and dating his works at the age of thirteen. They were mostly copies of nineteenth-century Sicilian landscape painters as well as French painters such as Millet and contemporary artists such as Carrà, but there were also original portraits. In 1928 he participated in his first collective exhibition in Palermo.