Leone Minassian
Leone Minassian (born May 8, 1905 in Constantinople , Ottoman Empire , † 1978 in Venice , Italy ) was an Italian painter of Armenian descent. He is one of the most important representatives of abstract painting after the Second World War.
Leone Minassian was born to Armenian parents in Constantinople. He started painting at the age of 11. He received art lessons from Leonardo De Manga and the French painter Albert Mille .
His family fled to Italy from the threat of persecution in Turkey . She lived first in Naples , later in Venice . In Naples, Leone Minassian studied in the studio of the Danish painter Axel Jarl (1871–1950). Leone Minassian lived in Venice in the house of his uncle Pasquale Minassian and attended the Accademia delle Belle Arti and studied with Amedeo Bianchi .
At the beginning of his artistic activity, Minassian sympathized with futurism , the art of Giorgio De Chirico and also surrealism . Minassian was friends with the artists Alberto Viani , Giuseppe Santomaso , Giorgio Morandi and also Hans Arp .
Later, after the war, Minassian found his own special painterly expression. His pictures are characterized by intertwined, plant-like forms and bodies in powerful colors. In the 1950s and 1960s his art received international attention. He was a participant in documenta 2 in Kassel in 1959 and in the Venice Biennale in 1961.
Web links
- Examples of his work and biographical notes
- Materials by and about Leone Minassian in the documenta archive
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Minassian, Leone |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian abstract painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 8, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Constantinople |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1978 |
| Place of death | Venice , Italy |