{{Short description|Italian painter (1924–2001)}}
[[File:Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6366300.jpg|thumb|1944 drawing by Renzo Vespignani. Photo by Paolo Monti, 1970 (Fondo Paolo Monti, BEIC).]]
'''Renzo Vespignani''' (1924 - 26 April 2001)<ref name=Kvesp>"Francis Bacon" (list of biographies), 2001, ''KLEINOS edizione d'arte'' (Italian translated), webpage: [http://www.kleinos.it/primo_piano_en.html Kleinos-Primo-Piano] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060512133455/http://www.kleinos.it/primo_piano_en.html |date=2006-05-12 }}.</ref> was an Italian painter, printmaker and illustrator.<ref name=FAvesp> "Obituaries - Hiroshi Teshigahara, Renzo Vespignani" (news), Brant Publications, Inc., 2001, FindArticles, webpage: [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_6_89/ai_75496817 Obit-Vespignani]. </ref> Vespignani illustrated the works of Boccaccio, Kafka and T. S. Eliot, among others.<ref name=FAvesp/> In 1956, he co-founded the magazine ''Citta Aperta ("Open City")'' and in 1963, co-founded the group ''II Pro e II Contro'' (Pro and Con) for neorealism in figure art.<ref name=Kvesp/><ref name=FAvesp/>
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== Life and work == Renzo Vespignani was born in Rome, Italy in 1924,<ref name=Kvesp/> and he grew up in a Roman working-class suburb named ''Portonaccio''. He began to paint during the difficult years of the German occupation of Rome, hiding himself at Lino Bianchi Barriviera’s residence.<ref name=Kvesp/>
His drawings in 1944 recorded the ravages of German-occupied Rome in realistic detail.<ref name=FAvesp/> Those images, often likened to German Expressionist works, were featured in his first solo exhibition at Rome's Galleria La Margherita in 1945. Meanwhile, he collaborated as a designer with many political-literary reviews done as poetic documentaries, relating to the cinema of Rossellini and Vittorio de Sica.<ref name=Kvesp/>
After the war, Vespignani contributed illustrations to political and literary journals.<ref name=Kvesp/> At New York's Hugo Gallery, his works were introduced to the U.S. in 1948.<ref name=FAvesp/>
In 1956 he co-founded, with other intellectuals, the review ''Citta Aperta ("City Opened")'', a magazine concerning the city culture's problems.<ref name=Kvesp/> At this time, his work had begun to focus on life in the harsh neighborhoods of Rome's periphery, displaying a connection with the films and literature of Italian Neorealism.<ref name=FAvesp/>
In 1963, with the painters, Ferroni, Ennio Calabria, Giuseppe Guerreschi, Piero Guccione, Piero Guccione e Alberto Gianquinto and the art critics Dario Micacchi, Antonio Del Guercio and Morosini, he founded the group ''Il pro e il Contro'' (Pro and Con), which immediately became a point of reference for the newborn neo-figures experiments.<ref name=Kvesp/> During the decade of the 1960s, Vespignani and the group sought to develop new critically and intellectually engaged figural art.<ref name=FAvesp/> Vespignani illustrated the works of Boccaccio, Kafka and T. S. Eliot, among others.<ref name=FAvesp/>
Renzo Vespignani exhibited works across Italy and had participated in the Venice Biennale four times.<ref name=FAvesp/> A 1985 exhibition at the French Academy in Rome examined the rapport between Vespignani's work and that of the Neorealist poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini.<ref name=FAvesp/>
After the 1970s, Vespignani rarely exhibited abroad, although two bodies of his work from the 1990s, ''Manhattan Transfer'' and ''An Afternoon in Chelsea'', had been inspired by visits to New York City.<ref name=FAvesp/>
Renzo Vespignani died on April 26, 2001, while undergoing surgery.<ref name=FAvesp/>
==See also== * Expressionism
==Notes== <references/>
==External links== * Obituary webpage: [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_6_89/ai_75496817 Obit-Vespignani].
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vespignani, Renzo}} Category:20th-century Italian illustrators Category:20th-century Italian painters Category:20th-century Italian male artists Category:Italian male painters Category:Italian contemporary artists Category:1924 births Category:2001 deaths Category:Painters from Rome