Renato Guttuso is an Italian neo-realist artist who has maintained sincere loyalty to the ideals of Marxism for life

Renato Guttuso (December 26, 1911 January 18, 1987) a famous Italian painter and graphic artist of the twentieth century, a prominent representative of neorealism. He was one of the founders of the New Art Front, a revolutionary art movement that emerged in Italy after World War II.

Renato Guttuso was a passionate supporter of Marxist ideas and a great friend of the Soviet Union. Back in 1940, he joined the Italian Communist Party.

Biography

Renato Guttuso was born on December 26, 1911 in the Sicilian town of Bagheria, in southern Italy. His father worked as a surveyor, and in his spare time he liked to paint with watercolors. Renato from early childhood began to attend private lessons with local artist Domenico Quattrococci. Even then, he was happy to copy the landscapes of old masters and painted portraits of his fellow countrymen.

Guttuso then continued his studies at Pippo Rizzo’s studio. And at the age of 17 he took part in an art exhibition in Palermo for the first time.

In 1933, Renato Guttuso left the university and moved to Rome.

He got a job at an art gallery as a restorer and enthusiastically took up painting in the expressionist style. After military service, Renato returned to Sicily and continued painting. In 1937, the name of the young artist first appeared in print. In the newspaper Littoriali della cultura e dell’arte, a long article was devoted to him, causing a resonance in art circles.

Inspired by the attention from the press and critics, Guttuso again went to Rome. There he very soon became a prominent figure in the metropolitan community of artists. Soon Renato met the girl Mimise Dotti. She became his faithful companion and model all her life, although officially they became husband and wife only in 1956. The artist’s marriage was happy, but he never had children.

In 1940, Guttuso secretly joined the Italian Communist Party.

During the Second World War, Renato continued to paint on acute social topics. But the fascist authorities treated his work condescendingly.

After the war, Guttuso, together with a group of like-minded people, founded the New Front of the Arts creative union. Due to ideological differences, it collapsed in 1950, when supporters of abstractionism left it. Renato became a recognized master of Italian painting.

From the beginning of the 1960s, Guttuso began to rapidly gain popularity outside of Italy. His work was especially appreciated in the Soviet Union. Renato’s paintings were constantly exhibited at thematic exhibitions in the USSR. And reproductions of his paintings were published in newspapers and magazines.

In October 1986, the master’s wife died and this sad event was a severe shock from which he could not recover. On January 18, 1987, Renato Guttuso died in Rome at the age of 75, where he was buried. And the Italian communists organized a magnificent mourning meeting dedicated to the memory of the genius.