Trento Longaretti Artist
Trento Longaretti (born 27 September 1916) is an Italian painter from Treviglio, in the Province of Bergamo in Lombardy. He studied at the Brera Academy in the 1930s, where he was taught by renowned artists including painters Aldo Carpi and Pompeo Borra, and sculptors Francesco Messina and Marino Marini. He says that painting is an "elixir for long life", and continues to paint and exhibit in his late 90s.He was on the fringes of the Corrente movement started by his friends and classmates in the 1930s to oppose the Novecento Italiano movement that was influenced by Italian Fascism. He was drafted by the Italian Army in 1939, completing tours of duty that until 1945 interrupted his artwork though still enabling him to attend several exhibitions, including the Mostra degli artisti in armi exhibit at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.In 1945, Longaretti married Elsa Ferrari, with whom he had three children. The themes of his post-war works involved more sacred art, and he adopted an anti-war stance and opposition to violence as a result of his wartime service, which features prominently in works depicting mothers opposing violence. Humility features in many of his works, including the depiction of characters such as beggars, vagrants, and vagabonds, and themes such as loneliness, abandonment, exile, pilgrimage, and poverty. He has stated that he prefers creating works that are "accessible and immediately enjoyable". His oil paintings have been described as dense and oily like those of Paul Cézanne, and his style having similarities to the fantasy settings of Marc Chagall and "pictorial culture" of Egon Schiele. His still life paintings have been described as "delicate and almost religious".He became involved in the Italian figurative art movement of the mid 1900s. His growing stature as a painter in Italy led to exhibitions at increasingly prestigious events, such as the Venice Biennale and Rome Quadriennale. It ultimately led to Longaretti earning the "Chair of Painting" and becoming the director of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo in 1953, a position he held until retiring in 1978. He maintains studios in the città alta of Bergamo and in Corniglia within the Cinque Terre that he describes as one of the most beautiful places in the world.