Bruno Bruni

Al Quattro Large Surrealist Modernist Lithograph Embracing Couple

1982

Bruno Bruni senior (born 22 November 1935, in Gradara) is an Italian lithographer, graphic artist, painter and sculptor. He became commercially successful in the 1970s. In 1977, he won the International Senefeld award for Lithography. He has since become one of the most successful Italian artists in Germany and one of Germany's best known lithographers. Born in Gradara, in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino on the Adriatic Coast in 1935, the son of a railway attendant, Bruni started painting as a young boy. He was initially a pupil of [Giuliano Vanghi] ; from 1953 to 1959 he attended the Art Institute in Pesaro. He then moved to London, where he became interested in pop art. In 1960, after an exhibit of his work at London's John Whibley Gallery, and after meeting a girl from Hamburg, he moved there to live with her and enrolled at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. He has lived in the city ever since and visits his hometown regularly. In 1961-1966 took a course at the Hamburg College of Fine Arts, where at that time taught artists Georg Gresko, Paul Wunderlich, Horst Janssen, Arnolfo Hausner, and art critic Hans Theodor Flemming. One of his teachers called Bruni Renato Guttuso. He studied in Milan. Along with several young authors Bruni founded in Hamburg group "COOP" - against the commercialization of art. In the 1970s, Bruno Bruni made a name for himself as a draftsman, lithographer, painter and sculptor in the international art world. Bearing stylistic similarities to the surrealist work of Michael Parkes and Leonor Fini. In 1977, he won the International Senefeld Competition for Lithography. He is influenced primarily by German expressionists like Otto Dix, George Grosz etc. and the Italian old masters . In particular, he is noted as one of the few lithographic artists "who paint all work directly onto the stone". He is especially known for his erotic female forms. He has said, "I cannot paint an abstract picture. If I had gone along with the trends I'd have disappeared long ago". He resides in a converted swimming pool, more than a century old, which serves as apartment, workplace and gallery. He sells his art through his wife's gallery in Hanover and is reputedly one of Germany's top earning artists. He is also a keen cook of Italian cuisine, and is a boxing fan and a close friend of former boxing champion Dariusz Michalczewski, for whom he used to cook for before matches. He has also cooked for Gerhard Schröder and has published a cooking book...

Enrico Baj (1924-2003) Italian, limited edition print. Hand signed and numbered in pencil from limited edition of 100 Aquatint etching with the addition of hand watercolor painting ...