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Antique signs

[VISIT BOSSOLASCO]

In the enchanting village of Bossolasco, a community of intellectuals, painters and sculptors settled who made the "village of Roses" their refuge to recover from city life.

Some famous artists such as FILIPPO CABUTTI, GIGI CHESSA, FRANCESCO MENZIO, ENRICO PAULUCCI, IRENE INVREA, FRANCESCO CASORATI, enchanted by the splendid views and picturesque glimpses made Bossolasco their residence.

To express their affection and attachment to the village, they decided to paint the signs of the various commercial establishments so that the old village could also breathe an artistic breath.

From this, the signs exhibited today in the town hall were born, works of great value that need to be protected from the elements, and the idea was born to re-propose the signs on a single wall in the historic center, so that everyone can enjoy them.

Point of interest
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The roses

Historic Signs

In the period 1950-1970 the painters from Turin Francesco Menzio, married to Ottavia Cabutti, daughter of the painter Filippo Cabutti from Bossolasco, Enrico Paulucci and the Marchesa Irene Invrea chose this quiet location for contemplative and pictorial inspiration stays.

The landscape of the Langhe, which enchanted them, thus became a recurring and constant theme of their neo-impressionist and Fauvist painting. In 1960, precisely to pay homage to the town that hosted them, numerous painters, in addition to those mentioned, created 28 wonderful signs of the artisan workshops of the small Langhe center.

Unfortunately many of these have been lost, only a few remain, currently present in the Council Chamber of the Municipality.

To offer a wide audience the opportunity to see and appreciate these important creations, the ARTE a BOSSOLASCO Association in collaboration with the Municipality of BOSSOLASCO, through the ANTICHE INSEGNE Company of Carignano has created faithful copies in the same shapes and sizes of some of these works.

Artists

Romano CAMPAGNOLI

Romano CAMPAGNOLI
1934 - 2017

A student of Italo Cremona at the Albertina Academy in Turin, he taught courses in Special Graphic Techniques at the same Academy and directed the First Art High School in Turin.
As a painter he favored the theme of natural elements: water, fire, earth, air, light and color.
As an engraver he has always shown a skillful use of a wide selection of mixed techniques, from drypoint to etching, to aquatint, works made on zinc matrices, with experiments also on plexiglass plates.
The varied core of themes addressed by Campagnoli in the two fields, pictorial and graphic, appears at the same time unitary, but also reciprocally provided with a life, however common and parallel, in fact autonomous.

Mauro CHESSA

Mauro CHESSA
1933 - 2022

Mauro Chessa was born in 1933 in Turin, where he lived, worked and died on July 31, 2022. He studied painting at the Accademia Albertina with Menzio and Calandri, and began exhibiting in 1954 by participating in "Eleven young painters of Turin".
Like others of his generation, he made his debut at the Venice Biennale, where he exhibited in '56 and then in '58.
After a beginning marked by existential realism, from which he distanced himself after a few years, for a vision influenced by 'informal painting' and action painting (especially for the expressive use of pictorial matter), Chessa returned to a more openly figurative dimension that initially felt the influence of Francis Bacon, and then developed into his own personal vision.

Daphne MAUGHAM

Daphne MAUGHAM
1897 - 1982

Granddaughter of the English writer Somerset Maugham, she was born in 1897. She began studying painting in France, following the lessons of the Nabis at the Acadèmie Ranson, of the Polish expressionist Mela Mutter in her Parisian atelier, and of the cubist André Lhote at the Acadèmie Notre Dame des Champs.
In 1914 at the Galerie Druet in Paris and in 1921 one of her works was accepted at the Salon d'Automne; the following year, returning to London, she graduated from the prestigious Slade School of Art.
She arrived in Turin and began studying painting at the school of Felice Casorati.
She exhibited at the Promotrice in Turin and participated for the first time in the Venice Biennale. With Casorati and some of his students, she presented her works at the Galleria Milano and the Galleria Pesaro, then, in 1930, at the Galleria Valle in Genoa and at the International Exhibition of the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. She marries her painting teacher and gives birth to Francesco. She is involved in numerous public exhibitions of international prestige; her works receive recognition from critics and the public of Pittsburgh. She is a regular at the Quadrennials of Milan, Paris (awarded at the international exhibition), Genoa, Venice. In 1941 many of her works are destroyed during the fire that devastates her atelier in via Mazzini in Turin. The Forties, Fifties and Sixties are marked by numerous events that see the painter involved in numerous group exhibitions of great importance.

Eso PELUZZI

Eso PELUZZI
1894 -1985

Son of Giuseppe, a skilled violin maker, and Placida Rodino, he attended technical schools and, in 1911, enrolled at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin. A highly intelligent comedian, a born actor, sarcastic, sometimes even caustic, he exhibited his first works in group and solo exhibitions and, from 1926 to 1948, took part in the Venice Biennials and the Rome Quadrennials. In 1942, a bombing destroyed his studio in Savona where "over 200 works lost their lives". In his last years he settled permanently in Monchiero in the Langhe.

Francesco TABUSSO

Francesco TABUSSO
1930 -2012

Born in Sesto San Giovanni, he obtained his classical high school diploma at the Rosmini High School in Turin; subsequently, from 1949 to 1954, he attended Felice Casorati's studio: "Casorati taught me to paint methodically, to be a painter who paints like a craftsman... I think I learned from Casorati not only to paint, but also to live as a painter". At just 24 years old, he was among the guests at the Venice Biennale, while in 1955 he was present at the Unione Culturale together with Francesco Casorati, Mauro Chessa and Nino Aimone, who with Ruggeri, Saroni, Campagnoli, Fico and Soffiantino travelled a surprising artistic adventure with deep friendship.

Mario CALANDRI

Mario CALANDRI
1914 - 1993

He trained at the Art School of Florence and Turin. In 1932 he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin at the school of Cesare Maggi. At the end of his studies he became his assistant. In that period were his first debuts as a painter, exhibiting in Rome and Venice, where, in 1940, he participated for the first time in the Biennale. After the war Calandri became assistant to Marcello Boglione, holder of the Chair of Engraving Techniques at the Accademia Albertina in Turin, whom he succeeded as instructor from 1957 until 1960. Mario Calandri is considered one of the greatest engravers of the 20th century and is placed in the Olympus of artists specialized in graphics. The Turin artist was also a painter of excellent quality, capable of making substantial artistic exchanges between engraving and painting, modulating and influencing, now in one, now in the other, inventions and emotions. As an engraver Calandri participated in the most important national and international exhibitions and exhibited in numerous personal exhibitions. Even after his death, great attention has been paid to the artist: as evidenced by the many retrospectives that have been presented in the last decade.

Francesco CASORATI

Francesco CASORATI
1934 - 2013

Son of painters Felice Casorati and Daphne Maugham, he also follows his parents' path and paints at the age of 15. His father, one of the greatest painters of the last century, passes on his passion to his son. A passion that will accompany him throughout his life, until his last moments. "He painted until a few days ago, making works that in my opinion are beautiful and different from his usual - says his wife -. Different in form and also in color, no longer so strong and confident, but paler, clearer, more thoughtful. A gift from Francesco that culminates in the first exhibition held in Milan in 1954, when he was just twenty years old. His curriculum also includes those 24 years spent teaching at the Accademia Albertina in Turin.

Piero MARTINA

Piero MARTINA
1912 - 1982

A leading exponent of the so-called middle generation, he taught at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin from 1970 and was its director from 1973 to 1978. He exhibited the large canvases belonging to the Nudi nella vigna and Nudi distesi cycles at the Venice Biennale in 1962; he reminds us of the compositional period governed by pregnant material and chromatic stratifications between the early 1960s and the following decade. He forged bonds of friendship with the painter Francesco Tabusso. He collaborated on the staging of the plays Nozze di sangue (Marriage in Blood) by Garcia Lorca and Woyzeck by Buchner and with Carlo Levi, who presented him in 1938 at his first solo exhibition in Genoa. Martina and Carlo Mollino, the artist's studio became the ideal setting for a series of shots by the famous photographer and architect.

Enrico PAULUCCI

Enrico PAULUCCI
1901 -1999

Born in Genoa from Liguria, he moved to Turin where he completed his classical studies and graduated in economics and law. He cultivated an early inclination towards painting. He adhered to Futurism and from 1927 forged relations with some of the most interesting artists active in Turin (such as Casorati, Bozzetti, Chessa, Levi, Menzio, Spazzapan). In 1928, he stayed in Paris, accessing the direct study of the great French pictorial course: Impressionism and its developments still little known in Italy by Picasso, Matisse, Dufy and Braque. Back in the capital of Piedmont, together with Chessa, Galante, Levi and Jesse Boswell, a pupil of Felice Casorati, he formed the Group of Six (1929). These painters looked to French postimpressionist painting (Cèzanne, Derain, Matisse, Bonnard, Dufy). Paulucci, who was inspired by the Fauves in terms of colourism. In Turin with Felice Casorati he founded the Casorati-Paulucci Studio. His works are exhibited in important national and European museums.

Giorgio RAMELLA

Giorgio RAMELLA
1939

After completing his classical studies, he attended the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin where he followed Enrico Paulucci’s painting course and Mario Calandri’s engraving techniques course. His debut on the Turin art scene was in the 1960s with an exhibition at the Galleria La Bussola together with Ruggeri, Saroni, Soffiantino and Gastini; in the same gallery he set up his first personal exhibition in May 1964. From 1965 to 1970 he received numerous awards exhibiting in Milan, Venice and at the Promotrice delle Belle Arti in Turin. In 1970 he was present at important exhibitions in Geneva, Paris and Brussels. In 1994 one of his large Crucifixions, exhibited in the Convent of San Bernardino in Ivrea, was purchased by the De Fornaris Foundation for the GAM in Turin. Between 1994 and 2000, after a trip to the United States, the artist worked on Graffiti, which he exhibited at the Maze Art Gallery in Turin and at the Castello di Barolo, and at the Galerie Unter Turm in Stuttgart and at the Musèe Dèpartemental de la Prèhistoire in Solutrè. In 2001, at the Galleria La Nuova Gissi in Turin, he exhibited the cycle dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh, which he later took to Lyon and to the Centre Le Polaris in Corbas. In 2003, the Piedmont Region dedicated a retrospective to Giorgio Ramella at the Convento dei Cappuccini in Caraglio.

Carlo TERZOLO

Carlo TERZOLO
1904 - 1975

A painter with a very solid traditional technique, eminently a landscape artist, from his early paintings in the 1920s he developed a very personal research that led him in the 1960s to results that were surprisingly in tune with the experiences of hyperrealism. Born in the Piedmont countryside, he moved to Turin at a very young age to attend the Academy of Fine Arts, where he later returned as an appreciated teacher of the new generations. Fundamental to his training were his trips to Tuscany and especially to Siena where he studied the primitives, identifying Ambrogio Lorenzetti (an extraordinary copy of a detail of Buon Governo is preserved) as his stable point of reference. Equally fundamental were his classic pilgrimages to Paris, with stimulating visits to Prampolini, De Pisis, Savini. He took part in countless exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, the Rome Quadriennale and the Milan Triennale. A considerable number of his works are present at the GAM in Turin and other important public and private collections.

Sandro CHERCHI

Sandro CHERCHI
1911 - 1998

He completed classical studies and then attended the Accademia Linguistica in Genoa. He moved to Milan in 1935, where he met Sassu, Birolli, Manzù, Treccani with whom he founded the artistic movement of "Corrente". He held his first solo exhibitions in 1940 and '41 in Genoa and Milan and, from 1948 to 1965, he was present at the Venice Biennale and the Rome Quadrennial. From 1948 he taught sculpture at the Academy of Turin and participated in the Biennials of Venice, Sao Paulo in Brazil and Alexandria in Egypt. Already in his youthful masterpieces, Cherchi introduced and maintained a coherent line of development, reaching a culminating moment in the works of the last period with the setting of the relationship between man and landscape.

Francesco CAIAZZO

Francesco CAIAZZO
1916 - xxxx

Born in Naples in 1916, unfortunately we do not know the date of death. It is difficult to reconstruct, if not partially, the history of this author who turned out to be a shooting star in Turin in the 1950s. A sudden service record at the Albertina Academy informs us that Caiazzo, a set designer who graduated from the Academy of Naples and a painter with a rare production of post-impressionist style, arrived in Piedmont in 1950. A teacher at the Art School in 1954, he received the assignment on the Set Design Course at the Albertina Academy and, from 1961 to 1966, he held the chair of Set Design. Figure and Modeled Ornamentation. From the year in which the assignment expired, his tracks were lost. He remains, in the memories of some contemporaries, a shy character, more attentive to set design than to painting and exhibitions for which he never showed much interest.

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Thanks to its picturesque historic centre, Bossolasco, in the Alta Langa, is known as 'the Land of Roses'.
 
Hospitality, wine and food, typical products, but also art, history, culture and tradition, make Bossolasco a popular tourist destination.

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