By Italo Scanga
Located in Surfside, FL
Italo Scanga (Italian American 1932-2001)
Mixed Media (with hand painted sculpture frame)
Charcoal, gouache, acrylic paint, paper
1987-1988
Dimensions: Measures 26.5" x 20.5" x .75" framed.
Hand signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Provenance: On the back, there is writing to indicate this piece was included in a 1990 showing at Chico State's University Art Gallery.
This painting and painted frame by Italo Scanga, epitomizes the characteristics of his oeuvre. It features a face and cypress tree. Polychrome and vibrant art from the Memphis Milano era.
Italo Scanga (June 6, 1932 - July 7, 2001), an Italian-born American artist, was known for his sculptures, prints and, paintings, mostly created from found objects. In his youth in Calabria, Italy he worked as a cabinetmaker's apprentice and studies sculpture with a man who carved statues of saints.
Italo Scanga was an innovative neo Dada, neo-Expressionist, and neo-Cubist multimedia artist who made assemblage, collage, sculptures of ordinary objects and created prints, glass, and ceramic works. Modern Italian abstract geometric folk art.
Scanga's materials included natural objects like branches and seashells, as well as kitsch figurines, castoff musical instruments and decorative trinkets salvaged from flea markets and thrift shops. He combined these ingredients into free-standing assemblages, which he then painted. Although visually ebullient, the results sometimes referred to gruesome episodes from Greek mythology or the lives and deaths of martyred saints.
He considered his artistic influences to be sweepingly pan-cultural, from African sculpture, to Cubism to Giorgio de Chirico. He often collaborated with the sculptor Dale Chihuly, who was a close friend.
Constructed of wood and glass, found objects or fabric, his ensembles reflect a trio of activities—working, eating, and praying. These activities dominate the lives of those who live close to the land, but they are also activities that are idealized by many who contemplate, romantically, a simpler, bucolic life.
Italo graduated from Michigan State University where he befriended fellow artists Richard Merkin and David Pease. He studied under Lindsey Decker...
Category
1980s Neo-Expressionist Mixed Media
MaterialsPaint, Wood, Paper, Charcoal, Acrylic, Gouache
