Salvatore Scarpitta

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Salvatore Scarpitta (23 March 1919 – 10 April 2007) was an American artist best known for his sculptural studies of motion.[1]

Scarpitta was born in New York City and grew up in Los Angeles graduating form Hollywood High School. He served in the United States Navy during World War II, preserving and cataloguing art stolen by Nazis. After the war, Scarpitta remained in Rome. During his time in Rome he was represented by the premier modern art gallery in Italy, Galleria La Tartaruga. In 1958 Leo Castelli saw his work and asked him to move to N.Y.C. and join his Gallery. Scarpitta remained with Castelli until Leo's death in 1999. Theirs was a partnership formed out of love,trust and mutual respect.

From the years 1959 until 1992, Scarpitta had 10 one man shows at the Castelli Gallery in NYC. He also was a part of many Castelli group shows that included artists such as Norman Bluhm, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauchenberg, James Rosenquist, John Chamberlain and Julian Schnabel, just to name a very few. Scarpitta's work is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art-NYC, Whitney Museum of Art, the Albright-Knox Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar Museum-Germany, Civico Museo d'Arte Contemporanea-Milano,the Guttuso Museum-Italy, P.S 1 Collection-NYC and the Houston Museum of Contemporary Art. Scarpitta also exhibited at numerous Venice Biennials.

His work is characterized by wrapped canvasses, found and wrapped objects made into sleds, and automobile themes.

[edit] Death

He died from complications of diabetes in Manhattan, aged 88. He was survived by his wife of nine months, Dana Scarpitta, and two daughters, artist Lola Scarpitta-Knapple and Stella Scarpitta Cartaino, five grandsons, two greatgrandchildren and a sister, actress Carmen Scarpitta.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Shattuck, Kathryn (April 16, 2007). Salvatore Scarpitta, New York Artist, Dies at 88. New York Times

[edit] External links

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