Primi Italo 1903–1983

Untitled, 1965

Collage, frame, glass, 19,5 × 19,5 cm, signed on the reverse at the bottom centre I. Primi 65
In the 1920s Italo Primi studied at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti in Genoa. His teacher was the sculptor Guido Galletti, who most famous for his 2.5 metre high underwater sculpture "Cristo degli" erected in 1954 near the Ligurian coast. In his artistic career Italian Primi's artistic career can be traced back to many important events in the European art history of the 20th century. His early work was influenced by Expressionism, but then he went through a phase in which pictorial means became increasingly more autonomous. In his exploration of pictorial space and the space of the viewer, and in his integration of of the temporal moment, he shares similarities with the artists of Gruppo N and Gruppo T, founded in Padua and Milan respectively in 1959. In the 1960s, he began to create constructivist and concrete works and also painted wooden reliefs, which are marked by aspects of kinetic art, minimalism and op-art."