Brancaleone Cugusi

Brancaleone Cugusi (born September 23, 1903 in Romana , † May 3, 1942 in Milan ) was a painter from Romana .

Life

The Sardinian painter Brancaleone Cugusi was born on September 23, 1903 in Romana ( Province of Sassari ) as the son of the second marriage of Leonardo Cugusi, doctor of the place. He was a very restless child. In 1905 he was entrusted to his grandparents and his maternal aunts in Tempio Pausania to give his pregnant mother a little rest

In 1909 he returned to his family, who had since moved to Cheremule , and started school there. Brancaleone, who had already learned to read and write from his grandfather, refused school after a few days and was sent back to Tempio Pausania .

He finished elementary school and was enrolled in class 6 of Umberto Primo boarding school in Rome in 1914 . He fled during the First World War and returned to Sardinia, where he and his brother Gugliemo went to the Salesiano von Lanusei boarding school up to secondary school. He earned a summa cum laude degree.

In 1920 he went to high school in Cagliari , but broke off school in 1921 because of bereavement in the family.

In 1921 his newborn sister Vera died, and immediately afterwards his mother Raffaela. She left seven children. The younger ones were taken in by their grandparents. The larger ones left school and returned to Cheremule. Brancaleone devoted himself intensively to painting.

In 1923 the father married for the third time. The family was reunited and the children went back to school.

Brancaleone finished school in 1926. He was supposed to be studying and asked his father to give him some time to think about the choice of faculty. He devoted himself intensively to painting for a year. At the urging of the family, he enrolled in law school in 1927. He studied half-heartedly for two years and hung around the art scene.

In 1929 his father called him to order. Brancaleone decided to paint and fell out with his father.

In 1930 he moved to his uncle Onorato Cugusi in Milan for a few months and then to his uncle Efisio Cugusi in Rome. In 1931 he finally found a poor room near Termini train station . He worked as a poster painter and at the fashion house “La Rinascente” as a fashion draftsman under the pseudonym “Navarro”. He increased his income with postcards of landscapes and still lifes .

Brancaloeone returned to his father in Sardinia in 1934, ill and in debt. In 1935 he moved to Cagliari to live with his brother Guglielmo. He recovered and painted his brother and his wife Cesira. With Cesira and her sister Alda he made a “contract for the financing and production of pictures” for one year. It turned into four years, from 1936 to 1940.

Brancaleone changed technology and format. The small formats were now a thing of the past. He painted his portraits life-size. He called his new technique “a mezza pasta”, and finally “a tutta pasta”. And he perfected the “raster technique”, because the entire work of the Sardinian painter Brancaleone Cugusi from Romana actually consists of reproductions of photographs.

In 1940 he returned to Rome for about a year and opened a studio in Via di Villa Ruffo. He painted six works financed by Antonello Zintu and three works financed by his uncle Efisio.

In 1941 he returned to Tempio and realized his last three works, including his masterpiece: The Boy in the Raincoat .

In 1942 he went to Milan, where his first exhibition was being prepared. His health deteriorated and on May 3, 1942 he died in a clinic in Milan. The exhibition opened on May 31st. It became a success. Because of the turmoil of the war, Brancaleone's work was not known. He was forgotten.

It was not until 2003 that the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi researched the life and work of Brancaleone. “No painter, not even Caravaggio, painted the shadow like Cugusi”.

On April 16, 2004 an exhibition opened in Cagliari, accompanied by Sgarbi. It became a success. Brancaleone finally got the recognition it deserved.

Contemporary witness

Young and old

In 1940, a painter named "Brancaleone Cugusi da Romana" arrived in Tempio Pausanio (a village in Sardinia). He was already a well-known painter and was looking for a model that would represent Tempio's youth. He found a 16 year old student and painted his portrait.

This portrait is currently one of the most important paintings of the early 20th century. In 2010 the sitter, now 86 years old, found the young student in this painting: his name is Tonuccio Addis.

Works

• Giovane con l'impermeabile (1940–1941), boy with raincoat - Milano Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna
• Ritratto di studioso (1940–1941), portrait of the scholar - Rome, private collection
• Pensieri tristi (1940–1941), Sad Thoughts - Toffia (Rieti), private collection
• Ragazzo (1940–1941), boy - Rome, private property
• Contadino in verde (1938–1940), farmer in green - Cagliari private property
• Le cucitrici (1936), the seamstresses - Cagliari private property
• Vecchia Sarda (1936–1937), old Sardin - Roma, private property
• Ritratto del fratello Guglielmo (1935), portrait of the brother Guglielmo - Cagliari, private property
• La danzatrice (1932–1933), the dancer - Cagliari, private property
• Ritratto di Chiccu (1936–1940), portrait by Chiccu - Rome, private collection
• Giovanne assorto (1940–1941), boy lost in thought (lost in thought) - Milan, private property

Exhibitions

• May 31, 1942 Milan,
• April 14, 2004 Cagliari, Exmá
• June 18, 2004 Sassari, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Masedu

literature

• Vittorio Sgarbi: Brancaleone Cugusi da Romana. edizione Skira, Milano 2004.
• Francesco Leone Cugusi: Brancaleone, mio ​​zio. Tema, Cagliari 2010, ISBN 978-88-95505-07-7 .
• Sven-Wieland Staps: Cugusi, Brancaleone . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 23, Saur, Munich a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-598-22763-9 , p. 38.

Web links

• Italian website about Brancaleone Cugusi