"Untitled" by Giuseppe Santomaso.

Lithograph
Dimensions: 62 x 50 cm
Print run 75/80
Signature, date and print run at bottom, dry stamp
Dry stamp Multigraphic Venezia bottom left

Born in Venice on September 26, 1907, Santomaso showed a talent for painting from a very young age; he attended first the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, then the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where his friendship with the sculptor Alberto Viani started. His naturalistic and figurative style mirrored that of many young artists: in 1934 he participated in the XIX Biennial of Venice with his work 'Figura' and the in the following year also took part in the forty years exhibition of the Biennial of Venice. 

An indelible print in the artist's poetic language, the Venetian surroundings eventually became too restrictive and provincial for him as he started dipping into a more avant-garde art through the magazine 'Verve' which then led him in 1937 to the Netherlands to study the Impressionists and Fauvists directly. 

He visited the great international exhibitions in Paris, both admiring and irritated by the works of Matisse, Braque, Pierre Bonnard and Picasso on display in France's artistic capital. Santomaso's first personal exhibition was held in Paris in 1939 at the Galerie Rive Gauche.