Luigi Montanarini

Abstract Composition - Lithograph by Luigi Montanarini - 1970s

1970s

Luigi Montanarini’s artistic career started a little by chance when, in 1925, during one of his frequent visits to the Uffizi, he met the painter Maurice Denis and in the same year he made his first stay in France. In 1927, Montanarini attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and began the artistic and emotional bond with Felice Carena, his teacher of painting. He immediately showed great passion and love for the classics and the masters of the 19th century, from Courbet to Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. After graduating from the academy, Montanarini made his second trip to Europe. He visited the Netherlands twice and renewed his interest in Rubens, Van Gogh and Rembrandt. Later, he visited Zurich and returned to Paris, where he met Gino Severini and attended Alberto Magnelli, Picasso and had fertile intellectual exchanges with Jacques Villon and Alfred Manessier. Montanarini adheres to the Roman School (Novecento) together with which he exhibits at the La Cometa Gallery in Rome. The following year, at the end of the war, he founded together with Pericle Fazzini, Enrico Prampolini, Joseph Jarema and Virgilio Guzzi, the Art Club based in Via Margutta. Montanarini met and attended Lionello Venturi, returned to Italy after the exile of the Fascist period. The year 1956 marks the beginning of its informal period and in 1965, Montanarini became director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and a member of UNESCO, which he held until 1976.