Giacomo Benevelli

Born in Reggio Emilia (North of Italy) in 1925 and grown up in France, Giacomo Benevelli has lived and worked in Milan for over Fifty years. A city in which a great school of sculptors formed themselves, from Medardo Rosso, to Boccioni, Fontana and Marini. Benevelli had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with many great Italian and international masters such as Moore, Hulsenbeck, Kokoschka and Arp, while developing his own formal language, aknowledged by the main scholars of contemporary art and conquering the Italian and worldwide artistic scene since the end of the Fifties, with numerous exhibitions, public works and publications. Benevelli has also realised a number of sacred art works. His sculptures are preserved in a number of modern art museums in Italy and the world, and in many public and private collections. About Benevelli the Italian art scholar Rossana Bossaglia wrote: "The most appropriate definition for Benevelli is 'a classic'. Not, in any way, in the sense that he draws his inspiration from historical iconography or that he plays around elegant academics. Rather, in the sense that he represents the role of the sculptor as that of an artist devoted to a highly representative form of symbolism, that is linked to universal values; and that he possesses a rich heritage of knowledge and emotions that are essential to his culture, however retaining a clear, unmistakable personality. Benevelli has crossed a nucleos of powerful experiences that have in turn effected his expressive form, never stagnating upon results achieved, however, without however obliterating the substantial matrixes, but rather absorbing them more in order to achieved a wonderful personal clarity. Hence Benevelli provides us with a series of perfectly clean objects that contemporarily feature great seduction, and are, in a nutshell, symbols of life. They are the translation and synthetic image of a philosophical reflection, which the author himself has made explicit in his comments to his work, demonstrating a unique equilibrium between rational awarness and sensitive creativity. The forms of Giacomo Benevelli are always soft and continuous, as if modelled with hands fully open. They are never broken or cracked, but always full-bodied and clear, when there are corners these immediately slide into the curved surfaces. His sculptures are of marble or bronze, according to the most illustrious traditions; yet, they are also of synthetic resin. Obviously the effects vary according to the material employed, because when an artist his aware he is also a skilful manipulator of his expressive tools; these may vary, but they never contradict one another". Benevelli said: "The sculpted form must open and enclose, without losing its unity and disassemble, or actually disintegrate. The line that defines its contour should progress to infinity like the light around a halo".