Carlo Battaglia

Who was Carlo Battaglia?

Carlo Battaglia was an Italian artist born in La Maddalena, Sardinia.

He studied stage design at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Rome, graduating in 1957 with a final thesis on Jackson Pollock. In 1962, thanks to a grant, he moved to Paris. In 1967, he lived for several months in New York, where he established friendships with Reinhardt, Motherwell and Rothko.

In 1970, he was invited to the 35th Venice Biennale, exhibiting his series about Maree for the first time, which introduced a theme that would be prominent throughout his life. Battaglia’s most important exhibitions include retrospectives at Palazzo Grassi, in Venice in 1967, Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in 1976 and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 1978.

He also participated in a number of group shows about Italian contemporary art held in many international venues, including the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington in 1974, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 1977 and the Hayward Gallery in London in 1978. In 1978 and 1980, he participated to the 40th and the 43rd Venice Biennale. From 1980 on, he increasingly isolated himself and painted in total solitude.

Battaglia died on the morning of January 17, 2005.