Gianni Dova
(Roma, 1925 – Pisa, 1991)
Dova was born in Rome in 1925. After his art studies at the Brera Academy in Milan, he had his first solo exhibition in 1947.
Dova is one of the co-signers of the manifesto ‘Oltre Guernica’ and adheres to the spatial movement founded by Lucio Fontana in 1947-48 (with Beniamino Joppolo, Antonino Tullier, Cesare Peverelli and after Roberto Crippa and Trancredi among others).
He participates, from this period, in numerous collective and personal international exhibition (the Venice Biennale, San Paulo, Rome, Milan, Paris, etc.) His work is particularly noticed and Gianni Dova receives several important prizes. In 1960, he is part of the selection of the Guggenheim prize in New York.
As an active participant in the spatial movement, his art is orientated towards abstraction without abandoning the ‘baroque spirit’ present in his first works.
His first canvases sometimes touch on surrealism; the artist associates the reminiscence of Picasso or of Ernst in other effects of modern material inspiration. Often undefined creatures pop up from the thick and darkly coloured paint.