Emilio Vedova is one of the leading exponents of Italian Art Informel painting. So he says "My works are not creations, but earthquakes. There are paintings, but it blows".
Born in Venice in the 09/08/1919 from a family of craftsmen-workers, Emilio Vedova begins to work intensely as self-taught since the thirties: figures and architecture. Influenced by impressionism painting during his apprenticeship in 1942 he joins the group of "Corrente" (Guttuso Birolli Lanaro etc.).
Antifascist, after 8 September 1943 Emilio Vedova participates in the War of Liberation in the ranks of the Roman resistance. Later he participates, with the nom de guerre of "Barabba", probably chosen for the thick beard that would have marked his face for life, in a very active partisan group in the Belluno area. During a fascists round-up, "Barabba" is wounded but fortunately he isn’t captured.
In 1946, in Milan, he is among the signatories of the manifesto "Oltre Guernica". In the same year in Venice he is one of the founders of “Nuova Secessione Artistica Italiana”, publishing a manifesto written by Marchiori with Renato Birolli, Ennio Morlotti, Armando Pizzinato, Giuseppe Santomaso, Alberto Viani, Bruno Cassinari, Renato Guttuso, Leoncillo and Carlo Levi. Later, at the requested by Guttuso, the group adopted the name “Fronte Nuovo delle Arti" with other artists who participate as Consagra, Corpora, Afro Basaldella, Turcato for example.
In 1948 he participated in his first Venice Biennale, an event that will see him often as a main character in 1952 when he was a dedicated a room, in 1960 where he received the Gran Premio for painting and in 1997 where he received the prestigious Leone d’Oro for career.
At the beginning of the fifties he produced his famous series of works: “Scontro di situazioni”, “Ciclo della Protesta”, “Cicli della Natura”. In 1952, Vedova becomes an influential member of the "Gruppo degli Otto" with Afro Basaldella Birolli Corpora, Santomaso, Morlotti, Moreni and Turcato. In 1954, at the Second Biennial of Sao Paulo, he won an award that will allow him to spend three months in Brazil where the extreme and harsh reality hit him deeply.
In 1961 at the Teatro La Fenice, Vedova creates the sets and costumes for “Intolleranza ‘60” by Luigi Nono. With him he also collaborates in 1984 for "Prometeo".
Since 1961, he works to "Plurimi", before he makes the Venetian and after the Berlin. where he creates between 1963 and 1964, including seven of “Absurdes Berliner Tagebuch ‘64” present at the Documenta in Kassel in 1964, where he also exhibites in 1955, in 1959 and in 1982. From 1965 to 1967 he produces “Spazio/Plurimo/Luce” for the Montreal Expo.
The teaching involves him at American universities, at the Salzburg Summer Academy and at the Academy of Venice. His career is characterized by a constant desire of research and innovative strength.
In the seventies he realizes “Plurimi Binari” of the cycles “Lacerazione” and “Carnevali”. Iin the eighties the great cycles of “teleri” to the “Dischi”, “Tondi”, “Oltre” e “…in continuum…”. He received many prestigious awards and recognitions. In 1998, the major retrospective at the Castello di Rivoli.
Emilio Vedova dies on 25 October 2006 less than a month after the death of his wife Annabianca.
Prestigious exhibitions are held in 2007: "Ricordando Vedova" at the Poly Art Gallery in Milan, "Emilio Vedova" at Sant'Erasmo Massimiliana Tower of Venice, "Vedova. Monotypes" at Peggy Guggenheim Foundation Venezia and finally the exibition “Emilio Vedova 1919-2006 " at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome.
Also in 2007 at Venice Pavilion for the 52. edition of the Venice Biennale with " Omaggio a Emilio Vedova. Dialogo con Georg Baselitz".
In 2008, "Emilio Vedova 1919-2006" at the Berlinische Galeerie Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur in Berlin.
In 2009 The Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation opens to the public 2 spaces that have marked the artistic act of the Master: one at Magazzini del sale and the studio.
One of the nine warehouses, the first on the left looking from the Canale della Giudecca, is to be used as a space for the works of Emilio Vedova, on the basis of an agreement signed by the City of Venice and the Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation. The Magazzini were a key place in Vedova’s life at various times. From the end of the 1960s to the early 1970s he temporarily used the fourth warehouse of the Magazzini as a studio-workshop.
On the other side, Vedova’s studio at Dorsoduro 51, right next to his beloved Zattere by the Salute, was the last large studio Emilio worked in, from the mid-1970s onwards. After his studio in the church of San Gregorio, and that of the Magazzini del Sale, which he left after saving them from demolition, he moved to a former 16th-century squero or boatyard with crooked and wavy walls lit by large, bright skylights, comprising a long, slightly curved space punctuated by tall.
On 2012 the exibition "The Lacerazione. Plurimi/Binari ’77/’78", curated by Fabrizio Gazzarri, for the first time presents three complete Lacerazione cycles together (II, III and IV, hitherto never on public display), as well as some single Plurimi/Binari. The cycles are on display in the Spazio Vedova, formerly the artist’s studio, exactly where they were made years ago.
On 2013 the exhibition "Vedova Tintoretto" at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice to 03/11.
On 2013, at the Foundation and Emilio Vedova Annabianca, Vedova Space, the exhibition "Emilio Vedova ... Cosidetti Carnevali" to 24/11.
Bright colors. Perhaps for this reason, starting from Kandinsky-Schömberg, has always talked about the sound of color, also due to his attendance with Luigi Nono. And the Venetian musician had dedicated his last three graphic works, gathered in a book of art, Al large sun load of love, by Egidio Fiorin, for editions Imprint, in July last year. Vedova and Nono had met in 1942. Then in'60, the composer had dedicated to my work. Ninth loved the color range of Vedova because there was an analogy with improvisation and the sounds of music dodecafonica. Colours flicking, flashing, it said.
The artist freed the fury that had within himself, with sudden gestures that became abstract forms. And that also left perplexed when recited a touch of strangeness.
Furore, has said. But his fury has not been subject to schools or currents. Vedova, at the time, had called into question the Futurism and its participation in Current, Guernica addition, the new Front of the arts, the Group of Eight, Action painting, Art brut, up with which to informal had always had a relationship of exchange, ever the alternative. In fact, Vedova has always acted as a force of nature. The Venetian artist - that of Venice, now had become an element of the landscape as San Marco and the island of San Giorgio - lived his paintings. Nature and nature ecame rhythm. Anxiety and lyricism, lucidity and madness. A false crazy, but in reality he was a genius.
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