Osvaldo Louis Guglielmi

Osvaldo Louis Guglielmi (born April 9, 1906 in Cairo , † September 3, 1956 in Italy) was an American painter of Italian origin of magical realism .

Life

Osvaldo Louis Guglielmi was born in Cairo to Italian parents. From 1914 he grew up in a slum in Harlem in the USA . Around 1920 he began his artistic training at the National Academy of Design and in sculpture courses at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design. His early works show the geometric shapes and surfaces of precisionism , his works from around 1933 are kept in muted colors and depict strange compositions, as they are known by Giorgio de Chirico .

Guglielmi later decided to portray simple and oppressed people in their wretched circumstances. His socially responsible attitude led him to work for the Works Progress Administration , for which he worked from 1934 to 1939. The picture Odd Fellows Hall , a ghostly street, executed in Guglielmi's signature color palette and strangely distorted perspective, was created during his employment with the WPA. In 1945/46 he took part in the Bel-Ami competition with his version of the temptation of Saint Anthony . He has taught at Louisiana State University and The New School for Social Research in New York. He died in 1956 while on a trip to Italy.

Works

• Odd Fellows Hall (1936) University of Kentucky Art Museum
• Town Square (ca.1936–1939), Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Relief Blues (ca.1938), Smithsonian American Art Museum
• The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1945), whereabouts unknown

Web links

• Osvaldo Louis Guglielmi in the Artcyclopedia