Antonio Vitale was born on the 14th of January 1968, in Barletta, Italy, where he lived until the age of 30. As the son of an Art Collector, he would often visit Galleries and see the Personal Exhibits of prominent ateliers. He would meet contemporary artists such as Ernesto Treccani, G.F. Gonzaga, Visentin, Renato Guttuso, Schifano and so many others around Italy.
His interest grew in the arts in all its diversity and soon began to frequent arts restorations workshops “Botteghe” around Tuscany province. In particular he studied at the renowned “Istituto per l’arte e il Restauro”, the Domus Aurea Course, a prominent Art Restoration School in Florence, at Palazzo Spinelli building, where he completed a diploma. Antonio took interest in philosophy and psychology readings which enriched his influences, and from Antonio embarked on a path towards Surrealism.
In the following years, accumulating multiple Italian art prizes at various institutions, he felt the need for new stimuli, departing from his earlier influences, Rene’ Magritte and Giorgio De Chirico’s metaphysical themes. Antonio dedicated his time to experimenting in new techniques such as the Conceptual art and the Drip Painting. He applied these two styles combining figurative subjects from the early XXI to glamour subjects of the XXII Century.
In pursuit of an ancient astrological belief, the conjunction of Neptune-Pluto, where the movements of these two furthermost planets represent the most fundamental changes in civilization; Every 500 years, a cataclysmic upheaval begins which leads to a time of transition and uncertainty such as we live in today… after the great wars. But about 100 years after the conjunction, a great renaissance ignites that ushers in a new age. We are at that point now. It is now the darkness before the dawn. Antonio tries eagerly, in early stages of the year 2000, to discover a new style of painting suitable for the present times, and at risk of losing his own artistic identity and his own style.
Many of his works form part of many private collections across Italy, Milan, Turin, Ravenna, Rome, Trieste, Viareggio, Bari, Barletta, Trani, Città di Castello, Perugia, Arezzo and also internationally, Geneva, Sofia, Prague, Marseilles, Cannes and London and now Melbourne.
Publicly, in 2003, one of his works became the subject of an Italian postal stamp edition, the Artistic Commission of ‘Philately in Milan’ chose one of his paintings, representing a chivalric scene, to emit a celebratory stamp for the Five Hundredth Anniversary of “V Centenario della Disfida di Barletta” an important national event (The Challenge of Barletta), again reinforcing his 500 years cyclical ideas.
One of his commissions was also illustrated on the cover of a book “I Premi Nobel” (A commemorative Nobel Prize book) edited by Croce Rossa, Bari, and another appears on the cover of a poetry book written by Dr. Carmen Palmiotta.
Artist’s feedback (in Italian) at
http://antoniovitale.weebly.com/recensionicritica.html
Sites:
http://digilander.libero.it/a.vitale/avbio.htm
http://vitaleantoni68.wix.com/popsurrealismav
http://antoniovitale.crevado.com/
Antonio Vitale Artist 