By Anne Leader
Ferruccio Bortoluzzi was born on the Feast of St. Nicholas (6 November) 1920 in Venice where he co-founded the Centro di Unità della Cultura L’Arco (L’ARCO) with other Venetian artists and writers. A leader of Italian modernism, Bortoluzzi had several solo exhibitions throughout his career, including at the Galleria Bevilacqua (Venice) in 1943, his first, at the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh) in 1964, and the last at the Museum of Modern Art of Cà Pesaro (Venice) in 2003. He also exhibited in Milan, Florence, Trent, Verona, Rome, Padua, Ascoli Piceno, and Trieste, and participated in group shows around the world. In an interview in 1998 with Quaderno BAC Art Studio in Venice, he recalled:
I remember in the 60s when I first showed my mixed-medium works. They provoked bewilderment, and were even mocked by those collectors who preferred the palette of popular artists to the roughness and asperity of my wood pieces. I feel profoundly Venetian; son of this extraordinary city. My works are dedicated to Venice. In them you can read the affirmation of its decline, the exaltation of the dull colors typical of damp, foggy, winter days. You can smell the brackish odor of the marshes…
Carta Bruciata n. 123, 1970s
Composizione n. 80, 1963, wood, iron
Composizione, 1965
Bortoluzzi admires his work
Carta Bruciata n. 128, 1970s
Nude, 1944, oil on canvas
Bortoluzzi with Renzo Ferraguzzi, cofounder of L’ARCO