DINO MIGLIORINI ©

DINO MIGLIORINI

Dino Migliorini was born in San Donato in Collina in 1907. In his early years of training, he experimented with different work activities. He first became an apprentice for the 'Nuovo Giornale', later entering the world of decoration and restoration of works. It was the famous designer Gio Ponti who encouraged him to pursue a career as a painter, leading him to his first solo exhibition at the 'Lyceum' gallery in Florence in 1931. He attended the studios of Rosai, Soffici and Bacci. Success soon arrived and Migliorini was appreciated both for his landscapes and still lifes, and for his portraits, subjects that he executed with a very personal style but at the same time comprehensible to all in a context that, in the Second Post-War period, saw the success of the abstract, informal and conceptual avant-gardes. Between the 1930s and the 1960s, he produced a number of works with a Catholic background, as demonstrated by the fresco 'The Good Samaritan' for the church of S. Maria in Ricorboli and the painting 'The Baptism of Christ' for the church of San Donato. By the end of the 1950s, he was already a well-known and important artist, but the 1960s were the years of his definitive consecration also on an international level: in 1960 he painted the portrait of Maria Pia of Savoy, which was in Versailles, and in 1961 he was invited to the Vatican to paint the portrait of Pope John XXIII. Migliorini held numerous personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad between the 1950s and 1970s: Florence, Livorno, Pistoia, Lucca, Naples, Rome, Brussels, Milan, Lugano, Versailles, Genoa and Palermo. In 1970, a large anthological exhibition of his work took place in Rignano sull'Arno. He was invited to important exhibitions such as 'The Italian Season', an exhibition held in 1974 at Galerie Aziza in London. In February 1974, the Galleria d'Arte Piero Della Francesca in Arezzo organised his 70th personal exhibition, which was an incredible success with the public. In the 1980s and 1990s, Migliorini produced a great deal and exhibitions followed one after the other in Italy, in galleries (among the best known, Galleria Pananti in Florence, in 1982, and Paesi Nuovi in Rome, in 1985) and public spaces, where, in addition to one-man shows, he took part in group shows and thematic exhibitions. In 2004, the Region of Tuscany awarded him the Silver Medal in recognition of his works that have graced Florence and Tuscany. He died in Rufina in 2005. In the following years, some very important retrospectives were organised, including the 2011 anthological exhibition at the Municipal Gallery of Contemporary Art in Arezzo and the one in Bad Wörishofen, Germany. The Piero Della Francesca Art Gallery collaborated with the Maestro from 1969 to the date of his death, hosting an anthological exhibition of his work (his 70th solo exhibition) and exhibiting his work in numerous group and thematic exhibitions such as the Artisti Toscani exhibition.