"S.T."

ARTURO CARMASSI

Arturo Carmassi was born in Lucca in 1925 and in 1930 followed his family to Turin where he studied (he attended courses at the 'Fontanesi Landscape School' and the Accademia Albertina) and worked until 1952. After travelling in Europe and working for some time in Paris, he moved to Milan where he formed relations with Gino Ghiringhelli, owner of the 'Il Milione' gallery, who became his dealer and in 1956 took over his studio in Via Andegari. The following year, his works made a name for themselves in important exhibitions abroad: at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, at the Biennial Sculpture Exhibition in Antwerp and at the 'Junge Italianischen Plastik' in Darmstadt and Dusseldorf. In the mid-1950s, Carmassi developed a strong interest in sculpture and in the decade from 1955 to 1965 his activity as a sculptor became more and more important, so much so that he settled in Liguria, in Bocca di Magra, where he set up a large sculpture studio and created large-scale works, which three years later would see him take centre stage with a solo show at the Venice Biennale. In '66 Carmassi made a trip to Brittany. During this period, he abandoned Milan to retire to the Tuscan countryside, to Torre di Fucecchio, between Florence, Pisa and Lucca, where he lived until 2015, the year of his death. From the second half of the 1970s, he devoted himself mainly to lithography and chalcography and was called upon to exhibit and attend cultural meetings in museums and institutions in Europe and the United States. Since the 1950s, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including: "I Premio Nazionale di Pittura 'Golfo di La Spezia'" (1950); "Biennale Internazionale d'Arte" in Venice (1952; '54); Musei d'Arte Moderna in Paris, Brussels, Rome and Spain (1955); Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg (1956); Brooklyn Museum, New York (1957); "Junge Italianischen Plastik", Darmstadt and Düsseldorf (1958); "Biennale" in Amsterdam (1958); Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (1960); Johannesburg (1960); "The New Generation in Italian Art", Dallas, San Francisco, New York (1960); Palazzo dei Diamanti and Castello Estense, Ferrara (1962); "Triennale Internationale de Gravure sur Bois", Germany, Switzerland, Brazil (1975-'76; '79); National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto (1976); "Carmassi Imaginary Museum", Academy of France, Rome (1986); Galleria Il Ponte, Florence (one-man show, 1992; '94); Palazzo Primavera, Terni (2005); CAMEC, La Spezia (2008). From 1958 onwards, his presence in the Apuo-versiliese area is documented at the Angeli Workshops, Studio Sem and the Da Prato and Fratelli Lucarini Foundries in Pietrasanta, and in Carrara at the Nicoli and Elle Marmi Studios. Here he also took part in a number of exhibitions, including: 'Sculptors and Craftsmen in a Historic Centre', Pietrasanta (1977); 'Sculpture Exhibition', Botanical Garden, Lucca (1979); 'Marble Work', Palazzo Mediceo, Seravezza (2006). He died in Empoli in 2015.