Angelo Savelli (1911- Catanzaro| 1995 Castello di Boldeniga, Brescia) was an Italian artist, known as the Master of White.
In 1944 he was among the promoters with Severini and Prampolini of the Art Club, an independent art association far from all the manifestos of the period, taking part in exhibitions organized in Cairo, Alexandria and Buenos Aires. In 1948 he travelled to Paris where he began what he called the ‘Linea zero’ and ‘tabula rasa’, a series of works made using only lines and basic geometric structures.
In 1953 he married Elisabeth Harold, journalist, writer and poet. With her he moved to New York where he decided to settle down. His studio was in front of those of Franz Kline and Willem De Kooning. In New York he met Leo Castelli and in 1957 he took part in a group show at his gallery, where in the following years he held a solo exhibition. In 1957 Savelli produced his first totally white painting, titled ‘Fire Dance’. From that moment onwards, Savelli eliminated colours from his palette and the white became the medium with which he expressed his spiritual abstraction for almost four decades.
In 1964 he was invited to the XXXII International Venice Biennale, where he exhibited lithographs and lithographic reliefs and won the Grand Prize for Graphics.
In 1984 he showed his ‘white on white’ works at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea in Milan, a turning point for all subsequent exhibitions.
In 1991 he exhibited at the Galleria d’Arte Niccoli, in Parma, and in the same year the Angelo Savelli Contemporary Art Centre was opened in Lamezia Terme.
In the winter of 1995, he moved to Italy to run the executive of his solo show at the Venice Biennale and the anthological exhibition at the Pecci Museum in Prato, which were launched in the same year.
In 1944 he was among the promoters with Severini and Prampolini of the Art Club, an independent art association far from all the manifestos of the period, taking part in exhibitions organized in Cairo, Alexandria and Buenos Aires. In 1948 he travelled to Paris where he began what he called the ‘Linea zero’ and ‘tabula rasa’, a series of works made using only lines and basic geometric structures.
In 1953 he married Elisabeth Harold, journalist, writer and poet. With her he moved to New York where he decided to settle down. His studio was in front of those of Franz Kline and Willem De Kooning. In New York he met Leo Castelli and in 1957 he took part in a group show at his gallery, where in the following years he held a solo exhibition. In 1957 Savelli produced his first totally white painting, titled ‘Fire Dance’. From that moment onwards, Savelli eliminated colours from his palette and the white became the medium with which he expressed his spiritual abstraction for almost four decades.
In 1964 he was invited to the XXXII International Venice Biennale, where he exhibited lithographs and lithographic reliefs and won the Grand Prize for Graphics.
In 1984 he showed his ‘white on white’ works at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea in Milan, a turning point for all subsequent exhibitions.
In 1991 he exhibited at the Galleria d’Arte Niccoli, in Parma, and in the same year the Angelo Savelli Contemporary Art Centre was opened in Lamezia Terme.
In the winter of 1995, he moved to Italy to run the executive of his solo show at the Venice Biennale and the anthological exhibition at the Pecci Museum in Prato, which were launched in the same year.
Gallery
Limiti di equilibrio
October - December 2022
