Biography

Vinicio Berti was born in Florence on 11 June 1921. As a young man he followed technical-industrial and also artistic studies. At the age of twenty he made his debut in the Italian art scene with works of a realist-expressionist nature and in 1945 he founded, together with other artists, the revolutionary cultural newspaper “Torrente”. Revolutionary just like Vinicius, who in fact became one of the most important personalities in post-war Florence, an example of a “new” man, capable of greater and more just social and political commitment. Subsequently, in 1947, after a phase of rereading of Cubism and Futurism, he arrives at abstract painting. He is one of the founders of the “Classical Abstraction” movement. Parallel to his life as a writer, he works as an illustrator and cartoonist. He is an artist of sensitive intuition who has sensed the change in a society on the threshold of technology. He died in 1991 in Florence.

Philosophy

Vinicio Berti’s art varies a lot throughout his life, but perhaps a common thread that unites all his works is precisely this dynamism and change that leads him to be a revolutionary artist. In his abstract phase he creates many works characterised by a precise style that appears very aggressive, without hesitation and without uncertainty, with a quick gesture he traces signs and lines that little by little, with a continuous materialisation of forms, go to create the final work . It seems that each painting is larger than the measure imposed on it by the canvas that contains it. It represents what appear to be large architectural structures viewed from the bottom up, which makes us small and conveys a feeling of grandiose and suggestive. As the work is observed, the jumble of lines melts to form three-dimensional and deep images.

Artwork in Castagno

The work of Vinicio Berti present in Castagno di Piteccio is Maggio (May). It is part of the series of paintings made in 1975 for the special edition of the “National Chestnut Painting Award” which represent the twelve months of the year. When Vinicio is invited to Castagno he is already an important and well-known person and does not participate in many meetings organised by Tommaso Paloscia. In ’75 he is 54, so when he makes this work he already has experience and has developed his own style. In fact the work easily reconnects to the other paintings of his abstract period, with very strong lines and the feeling of grandeur as if we were looking upwards. The aggressive signs and the contrast between the light blue and the yellow tend to give a certain strength to the painting. What appears as an almost senseless and totally abstract image at first takes on a meaning slowly becoming an imposing structure that stands out in the middle of the blue sky.