"Bathers"

WALTER PIACESI

Walter Piacesi (Ascoli Piceno 1929-Fermignano, 2022) has been one of the most important painters, engravers and illustrators of 20th century Italy.. After a long period in Ancona, in 1948 he moved to Urbino to attend the State Institute of Art for the decoration of the book, where he later became the holder of the chair of Calcography until 1975, when he was sent to the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence to occupy the chair of Engraving Techniques. Participate in many official exhibitions including the IV National Drawing and Engraving of Reggio Emilia (1953), the VIII Quadrennial in Rome, the Italian Engraving Exhibition in Paris, Krakow, Poznan and Dublin, the Biella Prize for engraving in 1964 and several reviews of Engravers in Italy, of which he is a member. The artist, until today, has engraved more than two hundred plates and etchings, illustrating various literary works and exhibited in some of the most important Italian art galleries, with which he has collaborated regularly for decades (such as Ghelfi in Verona and the Piero Della Francesca Gallery in Arezzo), as well as in prestigious public spaces. His fame of excellent engraver has never put in second place the intense and qualitative pictorial activity, which is closely related to the engraving and also of the highest level. Piacesi loves to represent modern life in all its dimensions, from that of man to that of things, sometimes with a biting and sarcastic style. Among the subjects he loves most is the woman who is exalted and described as a multifaceted being. The artist is also able to delicately portray situations of discomfort, sadness of everyday life. His work has had much acclaim not only among critics, but also among writers and poets. Piacesi lives and works in Fermignano (AP). Piacesi died in Fermignano in 2022, after working until the end. The Piero Della Francesca Art Gallery organised no less than five solo exhibitions of the Maestro, who also took part in numerous group and thematic exhibitions, and has been the publisher of several of its engravings. This collaboration has lasted over 40 years.