Giulio Turcato
Giulio Turcato was one of the main exponents of Italian informal abstraction. After finishing his propedeutic studies in Venice, he moves shortly to Palermo and Milan. It is in this period that he dedicates himself entirely to painting, finding stimuli in the cubist works of Picasso. In 1942, Turcato is invited to participate at the XXIII Venice Biennial, the first of fifteen invitations to exhibit there throughout his long career. After the war, during which he is actively involved with the resistance, Turcato enters in a period of intense artistic activity: in 1946 he undersigns the manifesto of the "Nuova secessione artistica italiana"; in 1947 he is among the founders of "Forma 1" and in 1948 the "Fronte Nuovo delle Arti". In 1953 Turcato is the winner of a "purchase award" at the first edition of the Spoleto Prize. In 1955, during one of the many Quadrenniale di Roma to which he was invited, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome acquired his "Reticolo" for inclusion in its permanent collections. In the following period, his painting idiom matures and acquires a unique and original dimension: with a path which is perhaps the reverse of Emilio Vedova, Turcato was "cooling down" his images, with colors that seem to flow slowly from the canvas, using materials such as sand (which gives a characteristic iridescent look), using the monochrome and the use of foam rubber, producing the fascinating series "Superficie Lunari." The critical acclaim that Giulio Turcato enjoyed and still enjoys can be said to have few equals in Italian XX century art: he was present at the Biennale in 1954, 1956, 1958 (Solo room and winner of the National Award), 1966 (Solo room), 1968 1972 (Solo room), 1982, 1986, 1988, 1993 and again for the last time in 1995.
