Gianni Dova, Color Abstraction, Screen Print, 1970s

Color abstraction is an rtwork realized by Giovanni Dova in 1970s . Screenprint on paper, 90 x 70 cm with frame. Edition 182/199. Hand signed bottom right. Born in Rome on 8 January 1925 to Edmondo Dova, Roman by adoption, but of Piedmontese origins and to Maria Rauchensteiner originally from Munich. At 16 he moved to Milan with his family and here from 1942 he attended the Brera Art School with the intention of then moving on to the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic. But the war changed his plans, he met and frequented the artists who met in the literary cafés and who had, among others, the newspaper published by Ernesto Treccani, Corrente, as their point of reference. Among these Renato Guttuso, Emilio Vedova, Renato Birolli, Ennio Morlotti, Bruno Cassinari, Giuseppe Migneco and together with them he recognized the importance of Pablo Picasso's work: Guernica as a symbol of the artists' struggle against barbarism. In 1945 he married Maria Grazia della Valle. In 1946 he joined the Realism Beyond Guernica manifesto. In 1947 he exhibited at the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice and at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan. Also in 1947 he joined the Spatialist Movement with Lucio Fontana, Roberto Crippa, Giorgio Kaisserlian, Beniamino Joppolo, Milena Milani, Antonio Tullier, Sergio Dangelo, Carlo Cardazzo, Cesare Peverelli, Gian Carozzi. Dova was among the protagonists of this movement that grew up around Carlo Cardazzo's Galleria del Naviglio and signed several posters including: the fourth (Manifesto of Spatial Art), Milan 26 November 1951; the fifth (Spatialism and Italian art of the 20th century); the sixth: (Manifesto of the Space Movement for Television), Milan 1952. He later joined the nuclear painting movement with Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo. In 1963 one of his works was exhibited at the Contemporary Italian Paintings exhibition, held in some Australian cities. In 1963-64 he exhibited at the exhibition Peintures italiennes d'aujourd'hui, organized in the Middle East and North Africa. His first works are close to surrealism; the artist integrates reminiscences of Max Ernst. He died in Marina di Pisa on 14 October 1991.