Emilio Vedova was born in Venice in 1919. The child of an artisan family, he first started working in a factory before apprenticing for a photographer and at a decorator’s workshop. Self-taught and harbouring a passion for painting, he produced incessantly throughout the 1930s. His sketches from this early period, which documented his travels, bore the hallmarks of the nervous linear traits that would become the signature of his work.
His home city held a unique place in his aesthetic development. The Venetian tradition, in all its forms, made its way into his style. Alongside international influences such as Rembrandt, Goya and Daumier, his work was deeply evocative of Titian, Tintoretto, Guardi and baroque Venetian architecture, from which he drew a particular sense of dynamism.
In the late 1930s he attended a free school for the art of the nude in Florence. Works inspired by this period would be exhibited a decade later at the Ongania Gallery in Venice, alongside still lifes and other works. It was during this time that Vedova also cultivated an extensive network of artistic contacts. He came into contact with the Corrente Group (1942–1943), which included Renato Guttuso and Renato Birolli. The period was interrupted by the Second World War however, which saw Vedova join the resistance in Rome and fight in the hills of Piedmont. In 1946, he was a signatory of the realist manifesto Oltre Guernica and co-founded Nuova Secessione Italiana in Venice, the forerunner to the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti.
As a member of these collectives, he created pastel works that enabled him to express the intense feelings engendered by the war, which would continue to be channelled in his work for years to come. These works were exhibited at the 1948 Venice Biennale, where Vedova also enjoyed his own dedicated room in 1952.
In the 1950s Vedova embarked upon his famous Clash of situations, Cycle of protest and Cycles of nature series. It was to prove an important stepping stone towards international recognition and led him to take part in the first São Paulo Biennale in 1952, winning an award that enabled him to spend three months in Brazil. That same year, Rodolfo Pallucchini organised and curated his first solo exhibition abroad at the Viviano Gallery in New York, where Vedova exhibited his ‘black geometries’.
Later in the decade, the artist continued to expand his network, joining the Group of Eight. This affiliation marked a transition from rigorous geometric designs to more informal, gestural and romantically expressive abstract art. For Vedova, it was a moment of catharsis, as he was able to express in a purer and more genuine way the feelings of protest, fear and tension that had hitherto haunted him.
In 1961 he began work on his Plurimi cycle. This series of works was divided between Venice (1961–1963) and Berlin (1963–1964). He decided to move to Germany to satisfy his desire to face up to his anxieties and to experience at first-hand the fears and social tensions that were brewing in the city. The period also saw Vedova take up some great opportunities: in 1963 he was featured at the Contemporary Italian Paintings exhibition in Australia and in 1963–1964 he exhibited at the Peintures italiennes d’aujourd’hui exhibition, which toured the Middle East and North Africa.
Vedova passed away in 2006, but his work has continued to inspire new generations through a plethora of posthumous solo exhibitions. Most recently, these have included Emilio Vedova Immagini del Tempo 1936–2006, Palazzo Reale, Milan (2019); Emilio Vedova by Georg Baselitz, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2019); Historical Survey, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (2018); Solo, Museo Novecento, Florence (2018); Emilio Vedova from the Collections of Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli, Turin (2018); Emilio Vedova: De America, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2017); Georg Baselitz – Emilio Vedova, Museum Küppersmühle, Duisburg, Germany (2016); Emilio Vedova: Drawings, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2016); Emilio Vedova & Georg Baselitz, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria (2015); Frammenti Expo ‘67: Emilio Vedova, Magazzini del Sale, Venice (2015); Vedova in tondo, Spazio Vedova, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2014); Vedova Plurimo, Museo Correr/Ca’ Rezzonico – Museum of the Venetian 17th Century/Ca’ Pesaro, Venice (2013); Emilio Vedova… Cosiddetti Carnevali…, Spazio Vedova, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2013); Emilio Vedova ‘Teleri 1981-1985’, Spazio Vedova, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2012); Lacerazione: Plurimi/Binari ‘77/’78, Spazio Vedova, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2012); Emilio Vedova 1961 & 1984, Magazzini del Sale, Venice (2011); … in continuum, compenetrations/transferred ‘87/’88, Spazio Vedova, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2011); and Emilio Vedova Scultore, Spazio Vedova, Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, Venice (2010).
