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filmato flash
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Francesco
Vaccarone was born in La Spezia on 4th October 1940. He began to draw and to paint
when he was very young. He studied humanities first, then he attended philosophy
classes at the University of Pisa. 1957/64 - In those years he took part in group
exhibitions. His first personal exhibitions were organized in La Spezia in 1960
and in Sarzana in 1964. He took part in different ehibitions in Siena, Milan,
Faenza, S. Ilario d'Enza, Suzzara, Palermo and San Benedetto del Tronto. 1965/69
- With the Studio group he founded the "Trerosso" (pictures on avant-garde works)
in Genova. Then he started avant-garde cultural initiatives at the Carabaga Gallery.
In the same period he collaborated at the "Arti Visive" rewiev. In June 1966 he
organized the 4th meeting of the Group 63 with the town council of La Spezia.
At that time he also had strong and fruitful relations with the Linea Sud Group
in Naples, and the Group 70 in Florence. In the same year at the Carabaga Gallery
in Genova, he promoted the first National Exhibition o f Virtual Poetry together
with Bueno, Miccini, Isgrò, Pignotti, Balestrini, Bonito Oliva, and others. Numerous
publications give evidence of a great deal of the exhibitions held by Vaccarone
and the Studio Group by means of pictures, poems and reviews, from 1965 to 1968,
in several towns and also in Mantova at the International avant-garde Exhibition
at the Mantegna's House. 1970/75 -
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In 1970 he set up a studio in Rome and improved
his knowledge of coppeplate engraving at the printing works "Il Cigno". Here he
met several artists such as Marino Marini and Franco Gentilini. At that time he
made a graphic work entitled "In articolo amoris"comprising ten gravings introduced
by Calabria, Fieschi, Raphaél Mafai, Tavernari, Zancanaro. In 1973 the Macchi
Gallery in Pisa published a monograph by the expert in history of the art Enzo
Carli and by the poet Dino Carlesi. In 1974 he was awarded the first prize at
the Carrara International Meeting and was invited to the 9th International Biennal
in Campione, organized by the gallery responsible Ettore Gianferrari. Other exhibitions
were organized for him in Pontedera and in La Spezia where he was introuced to
the catalogue by Paolo Levi. Giorgio Gottardo in Padova and Silvano Meneghelli
in Florence organized two exhibitions for the painter at their galleries in February
and March 1975 with the presentation of Pier Carlo Santini and Renato Guttuso.
The 7th Gallery in Baden and the Burdeke in Zurich invited him to prepare two
personal ehibitions. The text in the respective catalogues was by the German critic
Roy Oppenheim, and it is a long essay on the training and the artistic growth
of Vaccarone as an artist with respect to the European culture. He was awarded
the "Vico d'Elsa" prize by a committee including Carli, Treccani, Carlesi and
Zancanaro. Then again Paolo Levi introduced him to the catalogue at the Viotti
Gallery in Turin in autumn. In Como, at the "Lario Cadorago" Prize he was awarded
the best appreciation , ex aequo, by a committee including Sassu, De Grada, Levi,
Mascherpa. 1976/77 - In the meantime he moved his second sutdio from Rome to Milan.
The connection with the corporeity and the physical, psychological and historical
space were the new, main sources of inspiration of his works in those years, and
Madeleine Guignard well caught that presenting him in the catalogue for the exhibition
that the Clermont Ferrand University dedicated to the painter in February 1976.
Enzo Di Martino, the responsible of the International Graphic Art Center in Venice,
invited him to arrange a collection of engravings made in spring 1976. In autumn
he was awarded the Civic Gallery National Prize in Gallarate, ex aequo, by a committee
including Mario De Micheli, Franco Passoni, Paolo Levi and Franco Solmi. He met
Armando Pizzinato and a great friendship and esteem started. The artist presented
him in a sensitive poem and an acute testimony in the exhibition catalogue the
Civic Galley in Monza dedicated to the painter. In winter he exhibited a collection
of black and white illustrations at the Golden West University in Huntington,
Los Angeles. The exhibition was presented in the catalogue by Kai Houser, Robert
Alderette and Mary Lou Barron. In 1958, when he was only eighteen, he was awarded
one of the greatest prizes at the "City of the Palio" exhibition in Siena by Enzo
Carli, who played a very important role in the artist's life. In fact, Carli wrote
the preface to his first monograph in 1973 indicating him as an Italian artist
to be signalled in the "Bolaffi Recommended" printed in 1979. He wrote also an
essay titled "Tableau d'histoire" that was published on the occasion of his personal
exhibition at the Nuova Sfera Gallery in Milan, in January 1977. That was a period
of intense creativity for Vaccarone: the Arnetta Gallery in Busto Arsizio organized
his personal exhibitions in Busto, the Edi/Albra in Turin published one of his
monographs edited by Franco Solmi, while the artist himself was making five etchings/aquatints
titled "Eclipse" at the Swan printworks in Rome. That lucky folder, representing
an ideal synthesis of his most recent works and introduced by a Franco Farina's
preface (the responsible of the Diamonds Palace in Ferrara), was exposed at the
Anthological Exhibition in the same gallery, together with nearly three hundred
works. 1978/81 - Vaccarone was asked to prepare a collection of his works for
the Civic Gallery in Gallarate, and for the Tourism Palace in Massa, then he was
in Bergamo and in Pisa at the St. Martin's Museum, in Genova and in La Spezia.
He was also invited to exhibitions organized by the Civic Foundations in the cities
of Piombino, Pontremoli and Santo Stefano Magra. In 1979, at the first Triennal
in Prato, he was awarded a desired prize together with Gentilini, Maccari, Scanavino,
Tozzi. For his first exhibition in Stoccolma, Monica Sangberg introduced him by
means of an emblematic text titled "Semantiska Former". The Society of Graphic
Arts in Turku asked him to open a series of exhibitions in Finland that were presented
in the catalogue by Helge Lehtovaara from the University of Helsinki. 1982/86
- In 1982, at the International Expo in Stockholm, the Edicigno presented two
exhibitions: the first collective one was dedicated to its own personal editions
with works by Marino, Gentilini, Sutherland, Matta, Guttuso, Tamburi, Zavattini;
and the second one was completely dedicated to Vaccarone. Later, at the Tecno-Svenka
Palace in the historical centre of Stockholm, it was prepared a personal exhibition
by the artist, showing his works from 1980 to 1982. In 1983, the University of
Cardiff invited him to show a collection of his works created from 1975 to 1983.
After 1979, the first relevant and organized exhibition in Italy was arranged
at the People's Leader Palace in Reggio Emilia in the spring 1984. The National
Museum in Bucarest invited him to prepare a personal exhibition which opened in
July 1985 with one hundred eighty works and presented in the catalogue by Grigore
Arbore Popescu. In October 1985, he took part in a travelling exhibition in Canada
passing through Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa together with Licata, Pizzinato,
Santomaso, Spacal and others. The exhibition was prepared by the International
Centre of Graphic Arts in Venice and was titled "Lyric, Geometric, Gestural Abstraction-Aspects
of Contemporary Italian Graphics". In the same month, he opened a personal exhibition
in Monaco in Baviera. In 1986, he was among the twenty-four Italian artists invited
to the "Gulf Prize" in Lerici. The initiative, promoted by the Town Council of
Lerici, was realised by Occhipinti, Menna, Bonito, Oliva and Restany. In the spring
of the same year, he was asked to bring three big works at the 11th National Quadriennal
of Arts in Rome, to take part in the historical division titled "Relevant elements
of the artistic research in Italy between 1950 and 1980".The Ligurian Region and
the Town Council of Riomaggiore prepared a collection of his works dedicated to
the landscape of the Cinque Terre at the Civic Palace of Riomaggiore. In 1986
too, the Town Council of Lerici prepared him a big anthologic exhibition realised
with the help of Carlo Occhipinti in the Monumental Castle: there were exhibited
about three hundred works. On that occasion, it was published a documented catalogue
whose preface was by Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti. In autumn, Vaccarone was invited
to the Eight International Art Show in Seloncourt, for the "special Italie" division.
1987/90 - He was invited to the 38th Salon at the Gran Paias in Paris, while in
Italy a committee including Minguzzi, Rylands, Romanelli, Di Martino, awarded
him the First International "Do Forni" Graphic Arts Prize in Venice. In 1987,
in Rykjavik he was invited to represent the Italian technique of engraving with
Licata, Vecchiet, and Zigaina at the "Graphica Atlantica" International Show.
In the same year, he participated with six of his works to the Miskolcian Biennal:
a travelling exhibition of international graphic arts, moving around the most
important European museums. At that time, he made, together with the Venetian
glassmaker masters, a glassy "Ordeal", that won the "Murano " Prize at the St.
Apollonia Holy Art Museum in Venice, together with other works by Licata, Gaspari
and Nespolo. In 1988, for Mario Soldati's "Paseo de Gracia" he created a suite
of lithographies at the Venetian International Graphic Arts Center. The Town Council
of Cortina invited him to exhibit a collection of his graphic works at the "Comparisons:
languages and contemporary graphic art generations" exhibition. Then, he was again
at the Gran Palais for the 39th Salon with his new big paintings representing
the sky: "Plain and purl stitch" . The Roman International Graphic Centre in Viterbo
arranged for him an exhibition at "the Popes' Palace" in the Art Galleries Owners
"Expo". He was invited to the 5th Xylography Biennal at the museum of Carpi. At
the Belvedere Fortress in Florence he exhibited twelve illustrations (now exhibited
at the National Central Library in Florence) dedicated to Borges' "Shadow's Eulogy":
it is the " Artists' books and pages in Italy" exhibition, organized by the Ministry
for Arts and Culture, including the most important Italian artists. In 1989, he
exhibited a selection of his most recent big paintings inside the International
Expo at Forssa, in Finland. The Macchi Gallery in Pisa presented him at the 4th
Italian Show of Contemporary Art at the "Businness Palace" in Florence. He was
invited, together with fourty Italian engraving masters, at the International
Biennal of Graphic Arts, supported by the Tuscany Region and the Town Council
of Florence. In June 1990, an important personal exhibition was organized at the
Civic Gallery of Modern Art, Diamonds' Palace, in Ferrara with the presentation
of a monograph titled "From sunrise to sunset" (printed by the Edicigno in Rome
and by the Arts' Museum "Bandera Palace" in Busto Arsizio) and a folder with the
same title containing three engravings. That was the first of a series of travelling
exhibitions that, later on, lead the artist first to exhibit at the Arts' Museum
"Bandera Palace" in Busto Arsizio, and then in Milan, Venice and Rome.
In 1997 he won an international price at the second graphic Macedonian Triennial and in 1998 the first prize at the 9th international Carpi Biennial dedicated to Xylography. In 2003, for his commitments in divulging artistic languages and in defending their freedom he received in Italy the Silone prize, while the Costantinian University of Rhode Island (USA) assigned him the Honoris Causa Degree in Aesthetic.
Between 2000 and 2004 he gave some lectures and mounted exhibitions in Polish Universities; then some anthological exhibitions in La Habana, in Marina di Massa, in Framura (about Ezra Pound), in Noceto nell’Emilia, where he realized also a big marble sculpture dedicated to peace. On this occasion a new book edited by Francesco Baroncelli, art historian of the University of Parma, was introduced. This critical anthology collects a series of texts by several artists and scholars about Vaccarone’s work and a wide bibliography from 1960 to 2004.
On the initiative of Egyptian Government and Italian Embassy his personal exhibition took place in Cairo in October 2004, with paintings between 1970 and 2004.
In 2005 he began to exhibit in the USA and began to work at two bas-reliefs in marble dedicated to the Pope Giovanni Paolo II for the Municipality of Noceto (inaugurated in 2006).
In the same year the Municipality of Parma dedicated him an anthological exhibition.
In 2008 the Municipality of Pisa dedicatet him
an organic exibition at the Abbazia of San Zeno.
Francesco Vaccarone’s works are present in public collections, universities, museums and private collections all over the world. |
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