Emilio Scanavino (Genoa 1922 – Milan 1986)

He was an Italian painter and sculptor.

He began (1945-1950) in the field of figurative expressionism: a stay in London where he discovered Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland was extremely formative.

In 1947 Scanavino moved, for the first time, to Paris where he met poets and artists such as Edouard Jaguer, Wols and Camille Bryen.

In the ’50 years he was part of the Group “I sette del Numero” of the Numero Gallery in Florence, together the other famous painter Rocco Borella.

Between 1951 and 1952, he became interested in ceramics, he also worked at Marzotti’s Ceramic Factory in Albissola Marina where Lucio Fontana, Enrico Baj, Roberto Crippa, Sergio Dangelo, Asger Jorn, Corneille, Roberto Matta, Wifredo Lam, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Luigi Broggini, Gianni Dova, Agenore Fabbri, Aligi Sassu and the artists of the Cobra group converged, and then joined Spatialism.

It was during this period that he developed his research into signs, influenced by his father’s theosophical experiences: each line takes on a symbolic and metaphysical resonance, it is a ritual image with almost mediumistic evocations.

In 1958 joined Venezia Biennale with an own room, winning the Prampolini Prize.

In the composition, which is the result of long meditation, the tangle of signs has its own very clear internal law, the greys of the background, rather than flat, are agitated by imperceptible variations of light.

Bibliography : De Bartolomeis F. Le projet de l’irrationnel de Scanavino, Milan 1972