IN THE SQUARE - RENZO PICCOLI

A playful boy, but already gripped by the sacred fire of painting, with a genuine calling and a deep awareness of his own potential. At sixteen, or just over, he entered a provincial competition for young painters, a serious and selective contest, in which he earned an excellent placing.

The fact is that he excelled from the beginning thanks to his innate talent, and never suffered from the expressive stammering and labored, sloppy painting typical of beginners. Certainly, he later refined his painting technique, simultaneously acquiring a more confident understanding of his own abilities; this allowed him, as we know, to establish himself and become known for his unmistakable style. Imagination and natural creative ease allowed him to develop images of remarkable freshness and immediacy in a succession of extremely varied themes, dominated by a love for his homeland, for the landscape with its infinite charm, and for glimpses of village streets and squares.

From the earliest days of his painting, he moved within the so-called Post-Impressionist movement, an artistic movement suited to his creative temperament, his agile, vibrant style, always seeking compositional harmonies that result in airy, soothing visions. Aware of his own pictorial ability and eager to move beyond Impressionism, Piccoli sought to explore and engage with other contemporary artistic movements. In this regard, the New Figuration period between the 1970s and 1980s is noteworthy: the compositional structure changed, objects, bodies, and figures were sharply disfigured with dramatic contrasts of light and shadow, dense colors, and bold, syncopated strokes, creating atmospheres of tension and almost wonder. His resume also includes a few forays into abstraction. Even during this phase, his skill allowed him to achieve highly respectable results. He manages to give strength and harmony to the images thanks above all to the joyful immediacy of the pictorial layering.

It's well known that his paintings have received countless awards in competitions, solo exhibitions, and group exhibitions; listing them would be too long, especially since the works themselves speak louder than the prizes themselves. IMO BENELLI