By Anne Leader
Italian painter Renato Birolli was born on December 10th, 1905 in Verona. After expulsion from the Accademia Cignaroli, Birolli left his hometown for Milan in 1929 where he began to show his work. There he was a co-founder of the group Corrente, which also included the artists Arnaldo Badodi (b. 1913), Bruno Cassinari, Sandro Cherchi (b. 1911), Giuseppe Migneco (b. 1908) and Italo Valenti (b. 1912). The group also published a journal by the same name. Rather than share a particular style, these artists pursued expressionism in a variety of forms. The group held two exhibitions before being suppressed by Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. After the war Birolli explored portraiture and abstraction. He died in Milan in 1959.
Incendio alle Cinque Terre, Oil on canvas. Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari, Vicenza, Intesa Sanpaolo, Inv. A.D-00788A-L/IS
Senza titolo, Oil on canvas. Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari, Vicenza, Intesa Sanpaolo, Inv. A.D-03439A-L/IS
Memoria del Veneto, 1957. Oil on canvas. St. Louis, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Gift of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., 1962, WU 4013
San Zeno Pescatore, 1931. Milan, Galleria d’Arte Moderna.
Portrait of the Poet Salvatore Quasimodo, 1942. Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana, NG S 1992