Ugo Sterpini

Italian painter, born in 1927 in Rome, died in October 2000 in Cavriago (Reggio Emilia).

Life

Trained at the Accademia del Nudo, Ugo Sterpini drew close to the abstract research of the Forma 1 group and took part in the international exhibitions of the Art Club of Rome. In 1951 he was included in Arte astratta e concreta in Italia at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, then joined the Origine group. He exhibited at the 8th Rome Quadriennale (1959) and, in 1962, at the Galleria La Nuova Pesa, in a solo exhibition conceived by Enrico Crispolti.

André Breton welcomed him into the Surrealist movement. In 1964, with Fabio De Sanctis, he founded the Officina Undici, which produced Surrealist furniture until 1966. He also worked for the theatre in Rome and for cinema, notably with Elio Petri (A Quiet Place in the Country, 1968; Todo modo). In 1977, in Reggio Emilia, he came into contact with Fluxus through Rosanna Chiessi.

The work

After the cycle of Iterazioni cromatiche of the early 1950s, which broke with post-Cubist abstraction, then the Liste di simbolismi and the Sabbie (1955), Sterpini returned in 1959 to a highly material figuration. Then came the cycles of the Giardini and the Fantasia femminile (1966). From 1967 assemblage dominated (plastic objects, paintings in relief, drawings), and a character inspired by Max Ernst, the Pesce mummia (mummy fish), occupied his work until the end of the 1970s. The 1980s were marked by a cycle devoted to Pulcinella.

Exhibitions and collections

• CSAC, Centre for Communication Studies and Archives, University of Parma: gift of the artist (1998) and his heirs (2002).
• Surrealist Prelude, Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, 7 June to 6 July 2024.