Borgo Museo | Sculture 1976 – 2004
Biography
Gino Terreni was born in Martignana (municipality of Empoli) in 1925 and spent his childhood near the Tuscan city. He began studying art under the guidance of master Nello Alessandrini but the beginning of the Second World War forced him to interrupt his studies. After the armistice he becomes a partisan and fights on the Gothic Line. At the end of the war he resumed his studies by attending the Porta Romana Art Institute in Florence. After completing his studies, he devoted himself to teaching mathematics, art history and art education. He is a member of the Academy of Drawing Arts of Florence, of the Muses and Engravers of Italy, of the Association of Venetian Engravers and of the Compagnia del Paiolo of Florence. In 1955 he held his first personal exhibition di lui, and from this moment on, numerous personal and group exhibitions will follow one another all over the world. He died in Empoli in 2015 leaving hundreds of works exhibited in various historic and public buildings, churches, squares and museums around the world.
Philosophy
Terreni is a multifaceted artist, he loves to range between different techniques but is particularly linked to the Expressionist current. His works are emotional and highly suggestive, which reveal the tragic nature of the subjects represented with their anxieties and hopes. During his career he has experimented with different languages and materials, creating paintings, sculptures, monuments, mosaics, woodcuts, frescoes and stained glass windows. Today we can see his works at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Civic Museum of Pistoia, the Vatican Collection, the Pushkin Collection in Moscow (engravings), the Leningrad Museum (graphic works), and numerous other museums and private collections. He produced, among others, the International Monument to Peace (in bronze and mosaic) present in Abetone and the International Monument to Peace and the Fallen of All Wars (in bronze and ceramic) in Montelupo Fiorentino. Therefore, as his various works testify, there is no artistic technique that he has not practiced.
Artwork in Castagno
Gino Terreni is present in Castagno with two works and two (obviously!) Different techniques: the mosaic entitled The Annunciation which is located in the another private courtyard to see it from a certain distance anyway) and the fresco The Virgin Annunciata at Casa Paloscia in La Vigna (Castagno) which testifies to the friendship with the art critic Tommaso Paloscia. In this Annunciation, the artist enhances the most emotional moment of the biblical episode by depicting the announcement of the conception and future birth of Jesus to the Madonna, news whispered in Mary’s ear by the archangel Gabriel. In the expressiveness of the two characters, in their looks and gestures, the sense of depth and wonder are evident while the three doves celebrate the news and in the background an orange sun emits rays of light. The mastery in the use of coloured stones creates such intense shades and truly impressive details, giving the mosaic a beautiful vitality. He finds out more by reading the fact sheet on La Vergine Annunciata (The Virgin Announced).
Facebook Group (Associazione Archivio Gino Terreni)