Giorgio Celiberti
BIOGRAFIA Giorgio Celiberti nasce a Udine nel 1929. Comincia giovanissimo a dipingere, appena diciannovenne partecipa, infatti, alla Biennale di Venezia del 1948, la prima del dopoguerra. A Venezia frequenta il liceo artistico e poi lo studio di Emilio Vedova. Nella città lagunare divide con Tancredi alla pensione Accademia la ca mera-studio. Intense frequentations with Carlo Ciussi, Marco Fantoni, and Romano Parmeggiani, who in the same years experienced a period of training in Venice. Following in the footsteps of his uncle Modotto, one of the most important Udinese pit tors of the 1930s, a protagonist, together with the Basaldella brothers (Afro, Dino and Mirko) in Filipponi and Candido Grassi, of the Novecentist renewal of Friulian art, Celiberti in the early 1950s moved to Paris, where he came into contact with the major representatives of the figurative culture beyond the Alps. Thus began a series of trips that would remain fundamental to his education: in 1956 he won a scholarship from the Ministry of Education that allowed him to stay in Brussels, where he was able to complete his research on avant-garde art. From 1957 to 1958 he was in London: these were the years when Bacon and Sutherland's expressions smo dominated. Viaggiatore instancabile, curioso, assillato inte riormente da una febbre di novità e di conoscenza, soggiornò negli Stati Uniti, in Messico, a Cuba, in Venezuela. Da queste esperienze ha tratto un repertorio di segni, di tecniche, che ha rielaborato negli anni successivi. Al rientro in Italia si trasferisce per un lungo e fruttuoso periodo a Roma, dove frequenta gli artisti di punta del panorama italiano. Il ritorno a Udine, verso la metà degli anni Sessanta, ha consentito a Celiberti di avviare un lavoro di riflessione su se stesso, che dura tuttora, ricco di esiti creativi caratterizzati sempre da una divorante ansia di sperimentazione. Nel 1965 accade un fat to destinato a modificare in senso radicale la sua arte. Visit the Te rezín lager, near Prague, where thousands of Jewish children, before being slaughtered by the Nazis left evidence of their tragedy in graffiti, drawings, in short diary entries and in a booklet of poems, testimonies toc songs of their tragedy. Nel 1975 i Muri Antropomorfi scaturiscono dalla riflessione sui reperti della necropoli di Porto, presso Fiumicino, della Roma paleocristiana, di Aquileia romana e di Cividale longobarda. Beginning in the 1960s he devoted himself specifically to sculpture, although his creative activit y was characterized, with increasing emphasis, by an original symbiosis between plastic and pictorial expression. Early works in bronze, stone, and ceramics are dedicated to the monumental themes of Ca valli and Cavalieri, followed by an original wildlife gallery: Cats, Birds, Goats. Subsequently, the sculpture abandons the monumental grandio sity setting to weave a private conversation with the traces of an ancestral pas sate, which seem to surface from a collective unconscious, for which the artist stands as the inspired spokesman. In affinity with the "Ar cheological" themes of painting, the Splinters, the Stelae, reminiscent of re mote tombstones engraved with enigmatic hieroglyphic inscriptions, the Slight Bassors, resembling fragments of lost civilizations sunk in an immemorial past, are born. He has participated in the most significant art events in Italy and abroad: the Venice Biennale, the Rome Quadrennial, the Esso Prize, the Burano Prize, Marzotto, Michetti, La Spezia, San Marino, Autostrada del Sole, the International Fiorino Prize, and the New Italian Painting exhibition in Japan. Oltre un centinaio le mostre personali. Tra le più significative quelle di Parigi (1953 e 1982); Londra (1956); Dallas (1963); New York (1963); Toronto (1976); Vienna (1978); Amsterdam (1979); Nova Gorica (1982); Novo Mesto (1983); Giaffa, Gerusalemme e Tel Aviv (1983); Bruxelles e Strasburgo (1987); Salisburgo, Los Angeles (1989); Londra, Düsseldorf, Barcellona (1990); Madrid e Parigi (1992); Millstat, Gent (1993); Chicago (1995); Museo di Zagabria (1998). Inoltre ha esposto più volte a Bologna, Firenze, Genova, Palermo, Roma, Torino, Trieste, Vene zia, Verona e naturalmente Udine. An anthological exhibition of paintings is mounted in 1980 at the Spazzapan Gallery in Gradisca d'Isonzo (Gorizia). Of the pri mavera of the following year is the exhibition at Villa Simes Contarini in Piazzola sul Brenta (Padua), in whose park to flank the hundred or so paintings pre sented in the rooms, large sculptures in bronze, pie tra and steel are set. The Villa Simes experience is resumed and developed in the summer of 1985 inside and in the parks of the Ville Venete in Carbonera (Treviso). In the same year Celiberti, invited by the Municipality and the Trieste Tourist Board, placed monumental steel and resin Stelae in the main streets and squares of the Julian capital, bronze sculptures at the San Giusto Castle, and stone sculptures, at the Miramare Castle, for a whole year. La mo stra si sposta da Trieste a Udine snodandosi al castello, in città e presso il Centro Friulano di Arti Plastiche. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, prestigious exhibitions continued in Italy and abroad: Exhibition at the Pagani Foundation in Legnano (1987); anthological exhibition at Villa Varda in Bru gnera di Pordenone, at Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, at Art L.A. of Los Angeles (1989); Exhibitions at Galleria Davico in Turin; at Galleria Forni in Bologna, of Art London in London, of Art Forum in Düsseldorf, at Sala Pares in Barcelona, solo exhibition at Galleria Giulia in Rome (1990); exhibitions at the Arco in Madrid, at the Gran Palis in Paris, at the Salone di Settembre in Venice, at Galleria Rotta in Genoa, and new anthological exhibition of painting and sculpture in the spaces of Fondazione G. E. Ghirardi at Villa Simes Contarini in Piazzola sul Brenta (1992); solo exhibition at Galleria Annunciata in Milan, exhibition of frescoes at Galleria B. S. in Venice, exhibition of monumental bronzes in the town of Millstatt, Austria (1993). In 1991, Celiberti performed an che two prestigious public achievements: the Friendship Mosaic in the a trio of the University of Ljubljana and the over 800-square-meter su perficie fresco on the vault of the Kawajyu Hotel in Shirahama, Japan. Altre esposizioni sono tenute nel 1994 a Palazzo Costanzi alla Risiera di San Saba a Trieste e al Fiac di Parigi. Nel gennaio 1996 si apre a Conegliano, a Palazzo Sarcinelli una mostra antologica, seguita da una ambientata nel Castello di Pergine. In 1997 an exhibition of paintings and sculptures was included in the events of Villa Manin di Passariano. Exhibition activity in 1998 testifies to the growing interest in the artist: sculptures by Celiberti are inse rite in a European context set in the ramparts of the walls of Treviso, Lignano Sabbiadoro hosts other monumental sculptures, and the master holds a solo show at the Angel Orentsanz Foundation gallery in New York, the Museum of Saint Paul de Vence, and the Zagreb Museum. The international arena saw him exhibit in Umag, Ljubljana, and Munich between 1999 and 2000, and in the Jubilee year he made a three-meter cross at the Church of Fiumesino (Pordenone). There are numerous exhibitions during this period, between Italy and abroad, the most important of which include an exhibition in 2002 at the former Vittorio Veneto ghetto and in the halls of the former Bergamo University. In 2003 Celiberti won the Sulmona Prize, and in 2004 his hometown of Udine dedicated an anthology to him at the "Giovanni da Udine" Theater with an extensive review of his recent productions. In 2005, the Villa Breda Museum in Pa dova hosted, "Giorgio Celiberti Anthological Exhibition from the Biennale to Giotto," and Prin cipe Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia donated a large painting by Celiberti to the MART of Trento and Rovereto, which was included in the museum's permanent collection. Group exhibition of sculptures in Prato della Valle and in the giar dini of the Scrovegni Chapel. 2006: exhibitions in Venice (Venice Design Art Gallery), Munich (Galerie Prom), Conegliano (House Museum of the "Cima da Conegliano" Foundation). 2007: Castelfranco Veneto (Galle ria Art&Media) and Tolmezzo (Palazzo Frisacco). 2008: Prato (Confartigiana to), Cividale del Friuli: outdoor sculpture exhibition. 2009: for his eighth birthday, he exhibits at the Jewish Museum in Venice and Rosazzo Abbey. In 2011 he is invited for the fifth vota to the Venice Biennale; he donates a grand de Stele that is placed in the courtyard of the Terezín fortress (Prague). 2012: exhibition at the Casa dei Carraresi in Treviso. Esposizione scultorea nelle piazze de La Valletta (Malta). 2013: mostra antologica a Villa Manin. Tra il 2014 e il 2015: mostra La passione e il corpo della storia al Museo Naziona le di Ravenna. In 2016 he exhibited at Philippe Daverio's Library in Milan, in 2018 at the Marino Marini Museum in Pistoia, from 2019 to 2020 at Maca Museo Arte Contemporanea in Acri (Cosenza). 2021: exhibition at the Luxury Hotel Danieli in Venice and at the Heart gallery in Vimercate (Monza and Brianza). Installation for Remembrance Day, Jan. 26, 2022, on Italy's tallest bell tower in the town of Mortegliano (Udine), and display in San Vito at the former prisons. Cittadinanza onoraria dal Comune di Mortegliano con riconoscimento da parte del Presidente del Consiglio Re gionale FVG Pietro Mauro Zanin del Sigillo Longobardo. Roma 2022: visita presso il Ministero della Cultura e menzione per la carriera da parte del Mini stro Dario Franceschini; visita al Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico: incontro con il Ministro Giancarlo Giorgetti. Esposizione a Cividale del Friuli dal 25 giugno al 25 settembre. On October 5, 2022, the Historical Archives of the Venice Biennale will dedicate a study conference to him entitled, "Giorgio Celiberti, from the 1948 biennale to the present." Premio Midolini alla carriera. Celiberti's "Gioiel li" exhibition at the "Loft ai Dogi" in Passariano di Codroipo (Udine). Solo exhibition in Portogruaro (Venice) at the gallery Arte Androne 51. 2023: exhibition in Gradisca d'Isonzo, at the gallery La Fortezza. Esposizione presso la sede del Consiglio regionale del Friuli Venezia Giulia. He lives and works in Udine.
