Raymond Puccinelli

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Raymond Puccinelli (also Raimondo Puccinelli ; born May 5, 1904 in San Francisco , † May 7, 1986 in Florence ) was an American-Italian sculptor.

life and work

Already trained in evening classes from the age of 14, Puccinelli began his actual studies at the age of 18, first under Rudolf Schaefer, then under Galka Scheyer in San Francisco. From 1927 various sculptural training courses followed in Italy, namely in the famous marble quarries. At the same time as his visual artistic activity, Puccinelli also worked for the theater (for example as assistant director to Max Reinhardt for a performance of Karl Gustav Vollmoeller's " Das Mirakel ") and financed his work as a freelance artist at times through work in the field of furniture and industrial design and through Architecture contracts.

His diverse friendships and personal contacts from all areas of culture are also important for Puccinelli's artistic development: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo , Élie Faure , José Clemente Orozco , Tsuguharu Foujita , William Saroyan , Sergei Eisenstein , Henri Matisse , Alfred Adler , Edgar Varèse , Darius Milhaud , John Cowper Powys , Max Beckmann , Fernand Léger , Oskar Kokoschka , Dong Kingman u. v. a. In the 1930s, Puccinelli often switched between San Francisco and New York, where he was presented, for example, in 1936 in the exhibitions "Degas, Maillol, Puccinelli" and "Barlach, Lehmbruck, Puccinelli". Numerous participations in group exhibitions, for example in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art , and solo exhibitions quickly made him known. The most famous public work is a 16-ton panther made of black diorite, which was installed in front of the Salinas Junior College (Hartnell College) in 1940 and is still considered its landmark today.

In the 1930s he got to know numerous protagonists of modern dance such as Martha Graham , in whose school he was able to regularly make sketches. Puccinelli married the Swedish dancer Esther Fehlen in 1940. He taught temporarily at universities such as Mills College , was from 1942 professor of sculpture in the architecture department of the University of Berkeley in California and later Dean of the Rinehart School of Sculpture in Baltimore. Despite his around 200 solo exhibitions and the great interest on the part of gallery owners, Puccinelli refused any sole representation by the art trade and preferred to sell his sculptures directly to art lovers after personal acquaintance and sympathy. In 1960 Puccinelli finally settled in Florence, where he worked in a studio in Piazza Donatello . In addition to hundreds of sculptures, he left his family around 7,500 drawings from all creative phases. His American first name Raymond is relevant for research for his work in the USA, in Europe he is known as Raimondo Puccinelli.

Awards and honors

literature

In addition to numerous exhibition catalogs and articles, the monograph:

  • Luigi Cavallo: Raimondo Puccinelli. Con un saggio di Massimo Carrà. Edizioni Galleria il Castello, Milano 1971.

Latest catalog:

  • Thomas Hengstenberg (Ed.): Raimondo Puccinelli. Between plastic form and inner infinity. / Between Sculptural Form and Internal Eternity. Cappenberg Castle April 21-21, 2013. Kettler, Unna 2013.

Web links

Commons : Raymond Puccinelli  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Puccinelli, Raymond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Puccinelli, Raimondo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American-Italian sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1986
Place of death Florence