Carlo Zinelli

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The Italian, self-taught painter Carlo Zinelli (born July 2, 1916 in San Giovanni Lupatoto , Verona , † January 27, 1974 in Verona ) was known under the name Carlo . He is considered a classic representative of the brut type .

Life

Childhood, youth and war

Carlo was born in the province of Verona to a carpenter and lost his mother at the age of two. He never learned to read or write, and when he was nine he was working on a farm to support the family. The loneliness he experienced there led to a deep access to nature. From 1934 he worked in the slaughterhouse in Verona. He was passionate about music and began to draw. He volunteered for the Spanish Civil War , but was released two months later for health reasons.

Hospitalization and turning to painting

In the years between 1941 and 1947, Carlos's behavior was characterized by the alternation between periods of work in clear phases and stays in psychiatric hospitals, caused by aggressiveness and anxiety crises.

In 1947 this led to his permanent admission to the San Giacomo Hospital in Verona, where he was placed in a ward with restless patients and treated with electric shocks and insulin . On April 9, 1947, paranoid schizophrenia was finally diagnosed. Since he was unable to communicate with the outside world, he lived in almost complete isolation for ten years . He found peace in music and drawing.

His creativity was initially limited to drawings on the floor and scratches with a sharp stone on the walls of the hospital. In 1957 he was accepted into the graphic workshop founded by the Scottish sculptor Michael Noble and the psychiatrist Mario Marini .

The painter

He and twenty other patients spent eight hours a day in the workshop. His aggressiveness and outbursts of violence receded and he escaped his isolation, as Noble also allowed stays in his villa, where the patients could paint and sculpt. He also made smaller and larger trips possible.

Since 1957, exhibitions of patient works have also been organized in galleries in Verona, Milan and Rome. At the 1963 exhibition Insania pingens organized by Harald Szeemann in the Kunsthalle Bern, Carlo was the only Italian painter present in person.

Shortly afterwards, Jean Dubuffet discovered Carlos' works and acquired a large number for his collection. From 1966, Vittorio Andreoli , who had known Carlo since 1959 and who was now in charge of the graphic workshop, supported Carlo and his work.

Carlo continued to paint until 1973, although his productivity declined after the hospital was relocated to the northern Marzana district in 1969. Carlo died of pneumonia on January 27, 1974.

In 1992 the first retrospective of Carlo Zinelli's works took place in the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona. In France, a comparable exhibition, which justified the publication of a catalog, took place in 2003 and 2004 in the museums Musée de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix in Les Sables-d'Olonne , Musée International des Arts Modestes in Sète and Musée d ' art modern Lille Métropole takes place in Lille .

plant

In the first few years in the studio Carlo also made sculptures, of which only a few have survived.

There is nothing left of his incised drawings. Apart from that, Carlo's work comprises around 3000 pieces mainly executed as gouache , with the front and back continuously painted. This gives the impression of an inner narrative thread.

They mostly depict stereotypically repeated human silhouettes and animals. These are usually painted over. Carlo decorated his works with collages and inscriptions, which are decorative because he could not read or write.

literature

  • Carlo Zinelli: Carlo Zinelli (1916-1974): Musée de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Les Sables d'Olonne, September 21 - December 7, 2003; Musée International des Arts Modestes, Sète, 29 january - 28 mars 2004; Musée d'art modern Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq, 10 avril - 1st août 2004. - Paris: Somogy, 2003. ISBN 2-85056-660-8
  • Carlo Zinelli: catalogo generale / ed. by Fondazione Culturale Carlo Zinelli. - 2nd Edition. - Venice: Marsilio, 2001. ISBN 88-317-7318-6

Web links

Individual proof

  1. ^ Flavia Pesci: Carlo - the painter. Technique and style. In: Catalogo generale
personal data
SURNAME Zinelli, Carlo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carlo (stage name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH San Giovanni Lupatoto , Verona
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1974
Place of death Verona