Ennio Calabria

Ennio Calabria was born in Tripoli in 1937. He earned his high school diploma in the arts in 1955 and later attended the Free School of Nude Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.
His first solo exhibition took place in 1958 at the “La Feluca” gallery in Rome, the same year in which he was immediately recognized by art critics as one of the most significant painters of the generation that emerged between 1950 and 1960. A keen observer of his time, his painting explores both social and existential themes.
In 1959, he participated for the first time in the 7th Rome Quadriennale. He would go on to exhibit in the 1972, 1986, and 1999 editions as well.
In 1961, together with painters Attardi, Farulli, Gianquinto, Guccione, and Vespignani, and art critics Del Guercio, Micacchi, and Morosini, he co-founded the group Il pro e il contro, which became a crucial point of reference for new figurative explorations in Italy.
In 1964, he was invited to the Venice Biennale, and from 1974 to 1978 he served as a member of its Board of Directors.
In 1985, he exhibited at Gucci’s Gallery in New York and held his first major retrospective at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan, which was later shown in 1987 at Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. On that occasion, a comprehensive monograph was published with critical essays by M. De Micheli and G. Carandente (second edition: essays by G. Carandente and D. Micacchi), published by Vangelista, Milan.
In 1988, the Musée Municipal of Saint Paul De Vence hosted a major exhibition of his work, presented by André Verdet. In 1990, a retrospective was mounted at the Church of Carmine in Taormina (Calabria: Works 1980–1990, Electa, Milan).
In the 1990s, with the series Ambiguity of the Glimpsed, Calabria initiated a new phase in his work, aimed at a deeper exploration of identity and the forms of the world and art. The series centers on the ongoing metamorphosis of the subject, tested by the disorienting experience of increasingly accelerated social exchange.
This body of work was exhibited in several public and private venues, including: Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld, Germany (1993); Andrés Art Gallery, Breda, Netherlands (at the 1993 Chicago International Art Exposition); Galleria Rotta, Genoa (1993); Palazzo dei Papi, Viterbo (1994); and the “R. Ridola” Museum in Matera (1996).
From the same period comes the series of pastels The Sea Beside, which anticipated his new artistic direction.
In 1998, he participated in the Lavori in corso exhibition at the former Peroni Brewery, organized by Rome’s Municipal Gallery of Modern Art. The following year, the general catalogue Opera incisoria 1955–1996 was published, featuring historical and critical texts by F. De Santi and scientific research by L. Martini (ed. Gabinetto delle Stampe Antiche e Moderne, Bagnacavallo).
In 2001, a major retrospective was held at the National Archaeological Museum of Chieti. In 2003, the monograph Quasi la forma. Pastels 1991–2003, edited by R. Pedonesi with texts by M. Di Capua and A. Romoli Barberini, was published and accompanied by a traveling exhibition.
From 2002 to 2005, he created a series of intense and dramatic portraits inspired by Pope John Paul II. Some were published in 2002 in the volume La forma cerca forma, with texts by M. Tonelli, I. Mitrano, and A. Gianquinto (Rendina Editore, Rome), accompanied by a video by A. Cimaglia and A. Pedonesi.
The entire cycle was later exhibited alongside a new, emblematic group of works in various public institutions: La forma cerca forma – verso le cose, Museo “Vittoria Colonna” in Pescara and the Royal Palace of Caserta (2004); La forma della percezione, Magazzini del Sale of Palazzo Pubblico in Siena (texts by C. Strinati, G. Nerli. De Luca Edizioni d’Arte, Rome); and Latenze della luce, curated by G. Simongini at Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo (2005).
These portraits of the Pope represent a crucial phase in Calabria’s ongoing inquiry into the instability of social relationships and the inner life of thought. Artistically, this sense of disorientation is embraced as a necessary condition for forming a new kind of subjectivity—one that seeks and shapes form while questioning it.
In 2008, he began a new series of portraits titled A Face and Time, which he continued to develop. The works were exhibited at the Museo dello Splendore in Giulianova (curated by C. F. Carli), and his cycle on John Paul II was shown at the Cardinal Karol Wojtyla Archdiocesan Museum in Kraków (curated by I. Mitrano).
His last major traveling exhibition, La forma da dentro, curated by F. De Santi (catalogue by Vallecchi, 2009), was displayed at the Matalon Foundation in Milan, the Trifoglio Gallery in Chieti, and the Civic Museums of Villa Paolina Bonaparte in Viareggio.
Some of his most recent and representative works were included in the exhibitions: Arte in Regola. Incontro con Ennio Calabria (2012), presented by G. Simongini at the Council of State, Palazzo Santacroce-Adobrandini, Rome; and Ennio Calabria. Nei tempi, il tempo (2013), curated by Rita Pedonesi, at the “U. Mastroianni” Civic Museum in Marino (Rome).
These exhibitions reaffirmed the significance of Calabria’s key themes and the originality of his painting—emphasizing his pursuit of a form that exists both within and beyond consciousness, a form that ambiguously affirms and denies itself at once.
In 2017, Ida Mitrano published Ennio Calabria. Nella pittura la vita (Bordeaux Edizioni), a book retracing the artist’s journey in which life, thought, and art have always been inseparable—a unified whole. For the first time, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, Calabria was portrayed through a lens that reveals the unique nature of his creative process and the expressive and iconographic power of his work. That December, the MACRO museum in Rome hosted the event Between Words and Images. A Meeting with Ennio Calabria, featuring Mitrano’s book and the documentary Ennio Calabria. Painting Speaks, by Giulio Latini.
Throughout his career, Calabria received numerous prestigious awards. Among the most recent: the Vittorio De Sica Prize, under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic (2006), and the Goffredo Petrassi Prize, Auditorium of Rome (2011).
In addition to the Venice Biennale (recent appearances include the 2011 Lazio Pavilion and the 2015 Guatemala International Pavilion) and the Rome Quadriennale, he participated in many international exhibitions showcasing Italian art from the 1960s onward, including Italy: Three Directions (San Francisco, 1959), Art Against Racialism (London, 1965), and Intergrafik, International Graphic Art Triennale (East Berlin, 1984).
He also illustrated numerous volumes of poetry and fiction, and designed over ninety posters—for Orlando Furioso by L. Ronconi, for ARCI, Lega Cooperative, UISP, CGIL, CISL, PCI, and the Basso Foundation, among others.
His works are included in numerous public and private collections, such as: the Metropolitan Theatre of New York; Pushkin Museum, Moscow; Wroclaw Museum, Kraków; Eliat Museum (Israel); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sofia; Gucci Collection; Colombe d’Or, Saint-Paul-de-Vence (France); Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome; Vatican Collections; Civica Raccolta A. Bertarelli, Milan; and the Cabinet of Ancient and Modern Prints, Bagnacavallo.