Salvatore Scarpitta was an American artist known for his sculptural investigations of motion. He was born in New York in 1919 and was exposed to art from a young age; his father was the Italian-American sculptore Salvatore Scarpitta Sr.
After leaving school, Scarpitta moved to Italy in 1937 where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo, followed by the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. During World War Two, Scarpitta served as one of the 'monuments men', finding and rescuing artworks stolen by the Nazis.
After the war, Scarpitta settled in Rome and established a studio there, developing his unique form of abstract art and conceptual art. In 1958, he began an important partnership with Leo Castelli, an American gallerist who would support and represent Scarpitta until Castelli's death in 1999. Across his practice, Scarpitta's works were infused with a deep sense of personal narrative, that lent them an incredible degree of emotive power. His output can be grouped into three main strands: bandage paintings, cars, and sleds. The first of these, beginning in 1958, incorporated layers of bandages that appeared to reconcile the horrors of the war while also challenging accepted conventions of painting. Scarpitta's car works were the predominant feature of the 1960s, using the vehicle as a metaphor for human existence and his own condition, essentially non-operational simulacra of their motorised counterparts. Later embodiments of these car sculptures were fully functioning vehicles and were tested on racetracks before being displayed, a forerunner of performance art.
In the 1970s Scarpitta focussed on a new subject for his constructions: sleds. These were made with a wooden frame and wrapped in unconventional materials such as birthing gowns and other materials related to specific important stages of life.
Scarpitta died in New York in 2007. An extremely dynamic artist, he was an attentive observer of the evolution of social culture investigated through the relationship of man and machine. He was a key figure in conceptual art and the use of everyday items as artistic medium.
