Tano Festa
b. 1938, Rome, Italy
d. 1998, Rome, Italy
Bicromia del Cielo (Two-Toned Sky)
1965
Oil and varnish on canvas
117 x 89 cm (46 1/8 x 35 1/8 in.)
Archivio Tano Festa
Provenance
Daniela Severi - Solari, Lugano, CH;
Private collection, Milan.
Literature
F. Soligo, Tano Festa. Catalogo generale, Edizioni di Canale Arte, Tomo I, Turin, 1997.
Description
Tano Festa was born in Rome in 1938. Brother of artist Francesco Lo Savio, he attended the Art Institute of Rome and graduated in photography in 1957, following the example of Cy Twombly and also investigating gestural and informal painting. His first public exposure took place in 1959 with Franco Angeli and Giuseppe Uncini, in a group exhibition at the gallery La Salita in Rome, where he would also hold his first solo exhibition in 1961.
A central figure of the Roman Pop Art movement, he welcomed the formal rigor of the Neo-Dada approach, offering monochrome and isolated readymades. Amongst his masterpieces are the blinds, mirrors and windows that become the main support of his activity as a painter.
From 1963 he also began studying the major Italian masters; focusing on the Renaissance, especially Michelangelo's Sistine and Medici Chapels, interpreting them for the first time as advertising images. In 1965 he was invited to take part in the Quadrennial of Rome and then, after a difficult period of lack of creativity, he was invited to the Venice Biennale in 1980. During his last years, living in the outskirts of Rome, he gave birth to 'the light of Egypt', geometrical-conceptual works. In 1984 he appears on the television series "Artists in the Mirror" directed by Mario Carbone.
His first artistic production concentrated on the geometric monochrome and the re-elaboration of the objects. His shutters, doors, windows, wardrobes and mirrors weren’t found objects but objects that were carefully reconstructed, veiled with colour and therefore deprived of their most obvious sense – they lived in a new poetic art space, which was no longer the space of daily life. Festa, a painter who defined himself “popular” rather than “pop”, reversed the American concept of the New York School: (…) we live in a country where, instead of consuming canned foods, we consume the image of the Mona Lisa on chocolates. (From the exhibition catalogue of the La Salita gallery, 1967).
During his stay in New York, Festa worked on his Skies series, which he finished in Italy and displayed in 1966 at Schwarz gallery. In these works the sky became the protagonist and a series of squares and frames created different dimensions, giving the illusion of more paintings and backgrounds on the same canvas – almost contructivistic compositions, which combined unconscious memories with the present.
The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice.
Where applicable ARR will be added.
A central figure of the Roman Pop Art movement, he welcomed the formal rigor of the Neo-Dada approach, offering monochrome and isolated readymades. Amongst his masterpieces are the blinds, mirrors and windows that become the main support of his activity as a painter.
From 1963 he also began studying the major Italian masters; focusing on the Renaissance, especially Michelangelo's Sistine and Medici Chapels, interpreting them for the first time as advertising images. In 1965 he was invited to take part in the Quadrennial of Rome and then, after a difficult period of lack of creativity, he was invited to the Venice Biennale in 1980. During his last years, living in the outskirts of Rome, he gave birth to 'the light of Egypt', geometrical-conceptual works. In 1984 he appears on the television series "Artists in the Mirror" directed by Mario Carbone.
His first artistic production concentrated on the geometric monochrome and the re-elaboration of the objects. His shutters, doors, windows, wardrobes and mirrors weren’t found objects but objects that were carefully reconstructed, veiled with colour and therefore deprived of their most obvious sense – they lived in a new poetic art space, which was no longer the space of daily life. Festa, a painter who defined himself “popular” rather than “pop”, reversed the American concept of the New York School: (…) we live in a country where, instead of consuming canned foods, we consume the image of the Mona Lisa on chocolates. (From the exhibition catalogue of the La Salita gallery, 1967).
During his stay in New York, Festa worked on his Skies series, which he finished in Italy and displayed in 1966 at Schwarz gallery. In these works the sky became the protagonist and a series of squares and frames created different dimensions, giving the illusion of more paintings and backgrounds on the same canvas – almost contructivistic compositions, which combined unconscious memories with the present.
The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice.
Where applicable ARR will be added.