Morandi, Giorgio

Morandi, Giorgio (1890–1964). Italian painter and etcher. He lived all his life in his native Bologna, where he studied at the Academy, 1907–13. Apart from brief associations with Futurism and Metaphysical Painting, he stood aloof from the intellectual turmoil and aesthetic experiments of the 20th century. Early in his career (and again in the 1940s) he painted landscapes, but he came to specialize almost exclusively in still-life, eschewing literary and symbolic content, and using subtle combinations of colour within a narrow range of tones. His style has something in common with Purism, but is more mellow and intimate, breathing an air of serenity and cultivated sensibility; the greatest influence on his work was Cézanne, whom he revered. After the Second World War Morandi acquired an international reputation, winning the City of Venice Prize for an Italian Painter at the 1948 Venice Biennale and the Grand Prix for Prints (1953) and then for Painting (1957) at the São Paulo Bienal. His work was much admired among younger Italian artists for its pure devotion to aesthetic values and its poetic qualities. Edward Lucie-Smith describes him as ‘arguably the greatest artist Italy has produced in the twentieth century’ (Lives of the Great Twentieth Century Artists, 1986), although Modigliani too would have many supporters for this title.