ROBERTO MELLI Ferrara, 1885 - Rome, 1958
Still Life with Pears, 1940
Oil on canvas, 34 x 25 cm

ROBERTO MELLI Ferrara, 1885 - Rome, 1958
Still Life with Pears, 1940
Oil on canvas, 34 x 25 cm
Signed and dated lower right: Melli 40 BIOGRAPHY: Born into a family of merchants. He began to paint and sculpt very young with the painter Nicola Laurenti and the sculptor Arrigo Minerbi in Ferrara. In 1902 he moved with his mother to Genoa where he began to work as an apprentice for a wood carver and made the first woodcuts. In the following years he came into contact with the lively Genoese cultural environment, participating with writings and illustrations in the activity of the periodical "Ebe". In 1910 he moved to Rome, where he was initially supported by the sculptor Giovanni Prini. In 1913 he took part in the first exhibition of the "Roman Secession", following the Futurist events with attention. In 1915 together with V.Costantini, G.Fioresi, C.E. Oppo and G.Pizzirani constitutes the "Italian Modern Group". Already at this date a constant in his work appears clear: the desire to support artistic activity through publications, events, conferences. So in 1918 we find him next to Mario Broglio in the organization of the magazine "Valori Plastici", on which he publishes various writings (First denial of sculpture). After participating (as a painter and sculptor) in the "Valori Plastici" exhibitions in Germany and Florence (1921 and 1922), a period of spiritual and economic crisis began for Melli. During the 1920s the artist followed various paths, also dealing with cinematography and poster design. Only at the beginning of the thirties did he resume his interest in figurative arts, first as a critic and then also as a painter: he began exhibiting again in 1932 at the third trade union exhibition, solely as a painter. His figuration, carefully constructed by areas of flat color and without chiaroscuro, reminiscent of the period of "Plastic Values", of metaphysics and of the Morandian lesson, is in this period one of the matrices of so-called tonalism. Melli makes friends with the young exponents of this address and, with Giuseppe Capogrossi and Emanuele Cavalli, signs the Manifesto of Plastic Primordialism. His activity as a critic continued in the Thirties in a column entitled "Visite ad Artisti" for the magazine "Quadrivio". In 1936 it was the only personal exhibition of these years, at the "Galleria della Cometa" (with a presentation by Libero de Libero), his exhibition activity was abruptly interrupted in 1938, when the racial laws deprived him of the right to participate in public exhibitions and lead him to a new deep crisis. His work resumes after the war. Since 1945 he has taught painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, returns to exhibit in some group exhibitions and in 1947 at the "Galleria del Secolo", presented by Renato Guttuso. In 1950 he held an extensive anthology at the "La Strozzina" gallery in Florence (the exhibition, presented by C.L. Ragghianti, was then re-proposed at the Gian Ferrari Gallery in Milan). The 1950 Venice Biennale dedicates a solo show to him. In recent years he continues his parallel activity as an artist and critic. In 1957 his volume of poems Lunga fabolosa notte was published by de Luca. In the year of his death, the National Gallery of Modern Art dedicated a retrospective to him, curated by N. Ponente and P. Bucarelli. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Roberto Melli, Catalog of the exhibition edited by G.Appella and M.Calvesi, Macerata1992 (with previous bibliography).
Very good condition Frame, without glass