Personal profile of the artist
Domenico Fiorentino
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Domenico Fiorentino is the veteran living representative of the " Open Air Sorrentine Painting School ".
He began his artistic formation attending Sorrento's College of Art and Naples' Fine Arts Academy, under the guidance of Viti, Striccoli and Casciaro.
He also frequented intensely the Neapolitan master Luigi Crisconio, in the period 1938/1946 when this artist used to dwell in the Sorrentine Peninsula.
Luigi Crisconio recognized his talent and encouraged his artistic work.
(oil painting by Domenico Fiorentino dating 1940, "little girl", from the exhibition"Sorrento Non Perduta" )
In 1943 Domenico Fiorentino was in Tuscany where made a series of drawings.
Towards the end of 1943, during the war, he obtained the sympathy of the technicians of Captain Donald Campbell of 22nd British Armoured Brigade (workshop for the repair of British tanks).Fiorentino painted and sketched portraits of the British soldiers. They gave him some knapsacks, to paint on, in return.(Two paintings made using the knapsacks have been on show 53 years later, in 1996, in the exhibitions room of Armida Cinema in Sorrento, during the International Film Festival dedicated to Great Britain).
"Fiorentino's formation was completed by the cultural context of the immediate post-war period in Naples, that was quite lively". (M.Valenzi)
In 1945 he frequented the artist Roberto Pane, at the time headmaster of Sorrento's College of Art, receiving immediate acknowledgment as a landscape painter.In 1949 he held two significant exhibitions in Rome at the "Po" Art Gallery and at the "Aver" Art Gallery, receiving merit from the art critics Virgilio Guzzi and Valerio Mariani.
In that period he also worked with exponents of the Roman School, such as Giovanni Stradone and Mario Mafai, these influenced his artistic abilities. In fact in the sixties he tried to transfer the Roman School experience, to the constitution of the " Sorrento Group " of painters and sculptors.
In 1951 he took part at the VI "Quadriennale" of Rome.
(The shore of the dream, 1950, oil painting, cm.38x48.work exhibited at the VI Quadriennale d’Arte of Rome in 1951)
Afterwards he also participated in several prominent collective exhibitions such as "Le Arti Figurative" of Rome, in 1953, "La Mostra del Mezzogiorno" in Rome, 1953, the National exhibition of Agriculture in Rome, in 1953, show-room N.14, beside Umberto Lilloni and Giacomo Balla," la Mostra d'Oltremare",in Naples in 1953, the International contemporary Art Exhibition in Rome, in 1955, the National Painting Exhibitions in Naples in 1957 and /1959, Mancini Price, in Naples in 1963, la Third National Exhibition in Belluno, in 1963, In 1962 he won the 2nd Prize at the First National Painting and Sculpture Competition, titled "Città di Sorrento".
In 1964 he received the 2nd Prize at the First National Painting Show titled "Città di Meta".
In 1965 he won the competition titled "Primo Premio Nazionale di Pittura Città di Sant'Agnello".
In 1969 he was awarded with the 1st prize for "Landascape in Sant'Agnello, The National Painting competition", winning the "Golden Lily/Giglio d'Oro", awarded by the Provincial Administration of Naples.
In 1972 he was again in Rome at the "Etrusca " Art Gallery.
In 1975/76 his works were exhibited in the U.S.A. in 4 American Art Galleries in Connecticut: Douglas Gallery, Westport; Imperator Galleries Ltd, Mamaroneck; Cove Gallery, Wilton; Draperies Plus, Danbury.
In 1975 he was also in Venice and in Cortina d'Ampezzo at the "Medea" Art Gallery.
From 1982 to 1989 Domenico Fiorentino lived and worked mostly in Paris, owing to the frequent visits to France for the medical treatment of his daughter, suffering from leukaemia, and passed away then at young age, in 1989.
He painted Paris and the outskirts in these particular and suffered circumstances.
Now most of these paintings are still unknown to the public, being jealously guarded .
Domenico Fiorentino found himself painting the Parisian landscape for the expressed will of his daughter, forced to ply between the native city and the French Capital for that destiny that leads to the so-called travels of the hope.
Domenico Fiorentino had already many painting clips of his daughter, as a deep interpreter of the mood of the young person, that followed in the art of the paternal path.
In those years spent while waiting for a miracle, Domenico Fiorentino painted Paris only for the expressed will of his daughter.
He honoured and painted, in order to offer his very dear daughter a vision of sweetness, poetry and tenderness.
In April 1985 together with his daughter he met and painted Christo, wrapping Ponte Neuf.
Domenico Fiorentino has obtained many other awards and prizes, last but not least the acquisition of one of his paintings("Villa Comunale di Sorrento.Hotel du Tasso al crepuscolo" dating 1975 ) by the public modern art gallery of Sassoferrato ( Ancona ), in 1994.
From July 1992 his work exhibits a permanent show at the Spazio Arte "La Rosa Magra" of Domenico Pollio and Anna Davide in Sorrento, in the historical rooms of the famous Pension of the Artists of the Grand Tour period.
The "Hotel Des Artistes" was run by a Domenico Fiorentino, the Great-Great-Grandfather of the artist.
The permanent exhibition is a work in progress, throughout moduli.
To quote the 2nd modulus, titled "Sorrento Non Perduta" , held from the 10th of december 1992 till the 22nd of may 1993, that zoomed on his painting in the fifties.
From may 28th 1994 his work is documented in the historical Modern and Conteporary Art Archive in Palazzo Bandera Museum in Busto Arsizio ( Varese ).
In 1996 Domenico Fiorentino was again awarded at the 46th Edition of the G.B. Salvi Review for his 1975 landscape "Dalle querce alla Città".
(Dalle querce alla Città, landscape by Domenico Fiorentino dating 1975,oil painting, cm.40x50, awarded in Sassoferrato in 1996).
On the 24th of July 1996 Domenico Fiorentino was reviewed by prof. P.Potter at the National Museum of the Arts of Washington on "Corot in Italy", explaining the "Plain air tradition in Italy".
The Sorrentine Painting School of Domenico Fiorentino has also been proposed with the exhibition "Courses in Arcady", three generations of figurative artists of the Sorrentine Peninsula, curated by P. M. Capria, that took place at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in October 1995.
Another exhibition of the Sorrentine Painting School was held in October 1998 at the cloisters of S.Francesco in Sorrento, with the subtitle "Sensibilità dell'ambiente/Environmental awareness".
After more than 50 personal shows the Archive of the works of Domenico Fiorentino is now beginning its formation
.