RENATO NATALI ©

© Renato Natali by SIAE

RENATO NATALI

Renato Natali was born in Livorno, Italy, in 1883, into a modest family in which perhaps his father, a hatter by trade, urged him to enroll in the School of Arts and Crafts. Not too temperamentally suited to the school regime he began to devote himself to drawing as a self-taught artist, and even when a companion urged him to attend Micheli's studio he did so little and against his will. His first known paintings date back to 1898, but his first official recognition came in 1903 when he was awarded a silver medal by the Ministry of Education, followed by his participation in the Venice Biennale, an exhibition in which he would take part six more times, until 1930. The artist's career and life led him to travel extensively both in Italy and abroad, especially to Paris, a city where he frequented fellow citizen Modigliani, experiences that enriched his cultural background and contributed to the definition of his painting made of chromatic contrasts, which would give him enormous success when he returned to Livorno in 1914. Around the 1920s, in addition to collaborating with the weekly magazine “Il Mondo,” for which he supplied numerous drawings, he participated in the establishment of the Gruppo Labronico, a movement whose intent was to take the teachings left by Giovanni Fattori to their extreme consequences, between post-Macchiaioli tradition and the avant-garde. He presented his own works at the first exhibition of the new Leghorn group. Participations in the most important Italian exhibition occasions followed, for example in Venice, Rome and Milan, followed by the purchase of many of his works by the city's most important Modern Art Galleries. Meanwhile, driven by public and critical success his artistic record grows, always accompanied by the painter's modest spirit. Between the 1920s and 1930s he also exhibited repeatedly at the Bottega d'Arte in Livorno, and in 1930 he participated with the Gruppo Labronico in the exhibition occasion at the Galleria Pesaro in Milan. During World War II Natali remained in Livorno, where he was greatly affected by the bombings that destroyed his hometown, which turned into important cues for his later works. In the years following the conflict he successfully continued his exhibition activities, participating in major events throughout the peninsula, occasions to celebrate the artist's works. Simple painting, characterized by rapid brushstrokes, bright colors and bold color contrasts that render places, figures and situations in a direct and powerful way. This style, perhaps due to his character and self-taught training, made Natali an artist whose talent was soon recognized by contemporaries and new generations. In his works is identified the recovery to the collective memory of old Livorno, with its glimpses, alleys and lights, capable of capturing in depth the true character of the city, even in its negative aspects, which he depicts, for example, in the evocative paintings that have as their subject the nighttime brawls in the city's clubs. His art, characterized by extreme originality, remains as if suspended between past and present, never going out of fashion and thus always remaining relevant. He died in Livorno in 1979. In his very long and honored career, in addition to his 6 participations in the Venice Biennale (1905, 1907, 1910, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1930 editions), he exhibited in prestigious public places in Italy and abroad (United States, Argentina, Egypt, Greece), and currently his works are in the collections of some of the most important national and foreign museums (the Gallery of Modern Art and the Museum of Palazzo Corsini in Rome, the Municipal Gallery in Genoa, the Civic Museum in Livorno, the Municipal Art Gallery in Vicenza, the Giannoni Gallery in Novara, the Museum of Rutgers University, New Jersey, U. S.A.). His exhibition activity in private galleries is also notable. Natali has in fact exhibited in some of Italy's most important galleries, including the Galleria d'Arte Piero Della Francesca, which hosted a solo exhibition of his work in 1977.