Franco Gentilini

An apprentice carver and ceramist, in 1925 he went to Bologna to meet Giovanni Romagnoli, holder of the chair of Painting at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts, who encouraged him to paint. In 1930 he already exhibited at the XVII International Art Biennale of Venice, where he was also present in 1936, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1958 (personal room), 1966 (personal room) and in 1968.

In 1932 he moved to Rome, where he frequented the Aragno café, meeting characters such as Ungaretti, Cardarelli, Bruno Barilli, Cecchi, Sinisgalli, Cagli, De Libero. In 1933, he held his first solo exhibition at La Galleria (Rome). And strongly influenced by the Roman School: from the baroque expressionism of Scipione and Mafai to the more rigorous line of Cagli and Capogrossi. In the 40s, he combined his pictorial activity with an intense graphic production, with collaborations in many magazines, such as “Primato” and “Documento”, and came into contact with the collector and art dealer Carlo Cardazzo, who would be among his main promoters also abroad.

Various stays in Paris help him develop a style in which the new international currents of cubism, surrealism and material research also find space: during one of them he visits Jean’s studio Dubuffet, who would have a great influence on the later phase of his work. Over the years, Gentilini’s painting becomes rough, the color is mixed with glue and sand, reality fades into surreal images, but at the same time with an ancient and classical flavour, between play and irony. In the 1950s Gentilini received prizes and public recognition, and held a solo exhibition in Paris, at the Galerie Rive Gauche. He collaborates with the magazine “Civiltà delle Macchine”, directed by Leonardo Sinisgalli. In the 1960s, a traveling exhibition of his was held in the United States. In 1965 he won the Rome Prize. In 1977 in Brussels he was elected member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.