Gruppo degli Otto Pittori Italiani
Italian group of eight painters. It was formed in 1952 after the disintegration of FRONTE NUOVO DELLE ARTI. Six of them had belonged to the earlier group: Renato Birolli, Antonio Corpora, Ennio Morlotti, Emilio Vedova, Giuseppe Santomaso and Giulio Turcato; the other founder-members were Afro and Mattia Moreni (b 1920). The group, which exhibited at the Venice Biennale of 1952, was coordinated by Lionello Venturi, who described its style as ‘abstract-concrete ...born of a tradition
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Gruppo degli Otto Pittori Italiani
Italian group of eight painters. It was formed in 1952 after the disintegration of FRONTE NUOVO DELLE ARTI. Six of them had belonged to the earlier group: Renato Birolli, Antonio Corpora, Ennio Morlotti, Emilio Vedova, Giuseppe Santomaso and Giulio Turcato; the other founder-members were Afro and Mattia Moreni (b 1920). The group, which exhibited at the Venice Biennale of 1952, was coordinated by Lionello Venturi, who described its style as ‘abstract-concrete ...born of a tradition that began around 1910 and that includes Cubism, Expressionism and Abstraction’. Geometric or post-Cubist forms dominate these artists’ work; however, the naturalistic colour and atmospheric luminosity of such paintings as Vedova’s Cosmic Vision (1952; New York, MOMA) and Birolli’s Brambles and Paths (1953; Brescia, Cavellini priv. col., see Venturi, 1959, pl. 14, p. 47) typify this group’s leanings towards expressive abstraction. During the 1950s Birolli, Corpora and Morlotti became more involved with Informalism and Tachism, and Santomaso and Vedova were significantly inspired by Hans Hartung and Wols respectively. Of the eight, Afro was the most outstanding exponent of lyrical expressionism, largely achieved through his use of vibrant and transparent colour in works such as Underwater Fishing (1955; Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie).
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