Salvatore Fiume was born in Comiso, Sicily, in 1915. At the age of 16, he received a scholarship to attend the Royal Institute for Book Illustration in Urbino, where he honed his skills in lithography, screen printing, etching and xylography. Soon after graduating in 1936 he moved to Milan, where he immediately befriended some of the local cultural and intellectual figures. Two years later, he was on the move once again, this time to Ivrea, to become the art director of a cultural magazine overseen by Adriano Olivetti.
Despite having his sights set on becoming a painter, this period marked a slight detour during which he published his first literary work – Viva Gioconda! (1943) – with the Milan-based publishers Bianchi-Giovini. Growing increasingly frustrated with what he was dedicating his time to, Fiume left Ivrea to settle in Canzo. Making a 19th century silk mill his studio and home, he turned his attention to painting, producing works inspired by the Italian Renaissance masters, to which he added his own metaphysical slant. He also produced a famous series of works inspired by Spanish folklore under the name Francisco Queyo – an entirely fictitious gitano artist straight out of Fiume’s imagination.
For Fiume, this highly productive period would bear fruit in the form of his first ever exhibitions: at Galleria Gussoni and Galleria Borromin (1949) in Milan. The latter would yield sales from his Cities of Statues and Islands of Statues series to the Jucker Collection and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
Three years later, Fiume would take another professional detour, this time into the world of theatre. Following advice from Alverto Savinio, Fiume tried his hand as a stage designer, an experiment that would lead to a long and successful career. Between 1952 and 1992, he worked on a vast array of productions, including de Falla’s Life is Short for La Scala in Milan (1952), Beethoven’s ballet The Creatures of Prometheus (1952), Cherubini’s Medea (1953), Respighi’s The Flame (1954), Bellini’s The Capulets and the Montagues for Teatro Massimo in Palermo (1954), Bellini’s Norma (1955), Verdi’s Aida for Covent Garden in London (1957), Verdi’s Nabucco (1958), Rossini’s William Tell (1965) and Donizetti’s The Night Bell for Montecarlo Opera House (1992).
The 1960s saw the beginning of anthological exhibitions and retrospectives. In 1962, Germany played host to a travelling exhibition of over 100 artworks. In 1974, a retrospective was organised at Palazzo Reale in Milan. The following year, Fiume offered to revitalise the small Calabrian town of Fiumefreddo Bruzio with some of his artworks at his own expense. In 1985 he held a large exhibition of paintings at Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. In 1987 a Fiume exhibition entitled De Architectura Pingendi was inaugurated by Prince Rainier of Monaco at the Sporting D’Hiver. In 1991 he showcased his architectural projects at the international architecture exhibition at the Triennale in Milan and in 1992 he held an exhibition at Villa Medici in Rome. In 1998, Gualtieri Castle near Reggio Emilia housed its very own anthological exhibition. A large exhibition entitled Salvatore Fiume: myths, hypotheses, metaphors was held in Canzo in 2001. The Italian Cultural Institutes of Vilnius and Warsaw hosted dedicated retrospectives in 2006. The following year, the largest anthological show to date was held in Arezzo. 2011 saw his most diverse retrospective yet held at Spazio Oberdan in Milan entitled Salvatore Fiume: a non-conformist of the 20th century.
Fiume developed an interest in sculpture relatively late on in 1976, which saw the very first exhibition of his sculptural work at Galleria L’Isola in Milan. The last exhibition dedicated to his sculptural oeuvre took place in 1995 at the Centro Allende in La Spezia.
Fiume passed away in 1997. His foundation, located in his old studio and home in Canzo, was established in 2003.
