Salvo (1947-2015)

Salvo aka Salvatore Mangione was born in Leonforte in the province of Enna on May 22, 1947.

He spent his childhood in Sicily and in 1956 moved with his family from Catania to Turin.

Since childhood he shows a strong aptitude for drawing and in 1963 participates, with a work taken from Leonardo, depicting an old man's head, at the 121^ Exhibition of the Promoting Society of Fine Arts.

He paints and sells copies from Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Fontana, Chagal, etc.

Between September and December 1968 he was in Paris where he immersed himself in the cultural climate that was created around the Student Movement.

Back in Turin, he began to frequent the artists of the new generation who worked in the field of Arte Povera and who found a point of reference in the gallery of Gian Enzo Sperone.

He met Boetti, with whom he became friends, Merz, Zorio, Penone and the critics, Renato Barilli, Germano Celant and Achille Bonito Oliva.

In this period he devoted himself to conceptual art through photographic montages, such as blessing self-portraits, writings and engravings on marble.

In 1972 he participated in Documenta 5 in Kassel. 1973 is the year of the turning point, in the sense of a return to painting with the recovery of traditional techniques starting with his d'après, such as the self-portrait as Raphael of the '70s.

From '76 starts a series of mythological landscapes with knights among archaeological ruins with colors that gradually become brighter and brighter.

This production arouses considerable critical feedback and the interest of collectors, including Friedrich Erwin Rentschler who dedicates particular importance to Salvo in his vast collection of contemporary art.

Between 1982-1983 its reputation is further consolidated at European level.

After the extensive retrospective organized in March 1982 at the Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst in Ghent, in April of the following year the most significant works from 1973 were brought together at the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne, which immediately after, in July, the Nouveau Musée of Villeurbanne near Lyon proposed to the public French.

In 1984 he participated in the XLI Venice Biennale.

Between 1985-1988 his solo exhibitions were set up in Italy and abroad, in public and private venues.

In March and December 1985 he exhibited at the Galleria dell'Oca in Rome and the Galleria La Bertesca in Genoa.

In 1986 the exhibitions of recent works by Barbara Gladstone in New York and at the Galleria del Milione in Milan were a considerable success and were followed by the great retrospective inaugurated at the Rotonda in Via Besana in Milan in December 1987.

In January 1991 in Turin, Sergio Bertaccini's Galleria in Arco proposed a series of interiors with extraordinary functions.

The exhibition activity continues regularly in Italy and abroad, in particular in Germany, where on September 25, 1992, at the Galerie Kaess-Weiss in Stuttgart, a solo show was inaugurated in which recent mountain landscapes, railway stations and Umbrian churches appear that a metaphysical light abstracts from time.

From 1993-1995 exhibitions alternated between Munich, Milan and Cologne.

In 1998 and 1999 important exhibitions followed in public spaces, in Bologna at the Gallery of Modern Art and at the former Capuchin Convent of Caraglio.

In January 2002 our gallery organized an exhibition that was later transferred to Bologna in the frame of Arte Fiera 2002.

A second exhibition is organized by our gallery in the period September-November 2007.

He died in Turin on September 12, 2015.

Salvo, pseudonimo di Salvatore Mangione (Leonforte, 22 maggio 1947 - Torino, 12 settembre 2015), è stato un artista Italiano.

Ha vissuto e lavorato a Torino.

Salvo, nome d’arte per Salvatore Mangione, nasce a Leonforte in provincia di Enna nel 1947.

Nel 1956, si trasferisce con la famiglia da Catania a Torino, sua città d’adozione.

Dal 1968 entra nella galleria di Gian Enzo Sperone con altri protagonisti dell'Arte Povera: Merz, Paolini, Penone, Pistoletto, Zorio e Boetti.

Proprio con Boetti condivide lo studio fino al 1971.

Salvo si esprime inizialmente attraverso manipolazioni fotografiche ede effettuando delle "sostituzioni", idea che riprenderà anche in seguito, realizza le lapidi in marmo ed i "tricolore", utilizzando diversi media.

Sono già presenti i temi della ricerca dell’io, l’autocompiacimento narcisistico, il rapporto con il passato e la storia della cultura, elementi essenziali della sua ricerca successiva.

Nel 1973 Salvo torna alla pittura, per non abbandonarla mai più, dedicandosi ad una serie di lavori d'apres, dove spiccano il confronto con i maestri classici ed i temi mitologici.

Quasi in parallelo si confronta con le serie delle Sicilie e delle Italie, in cui elenca i nomi di personaggi storici nelle mappe geografiche, e tra i quali pone sempre il proprio.

Città, valli e paesaggi dei suoi viaggi sono tra i soggetti iconici della sua pittura, interpretati più nelle forme e nei colori che nei particolari non essenziali, al punto di sviluppare un linguaggio che è sintesi della sua pratica stilistica ed estetica.

Muore a Torino nel 2015.

Le opere di Salvo sono state esposte in importanti manifestazioni internazionali d’arte tra le quali Documenta 5 Kassel (1972), Biennale di Venezia (1976 e 1984), Quadriennale di Roma (2005 e 2020).