Nicola Galante (Vasto 1883 - Turin 1969)

Nicola Galante was born in Vasto (Chieti) on 7 December 1883. After training as a cabinet-maker, he moved to Turin in 1907 where he set up his own business. In 1910 he began collaborating with a Turin decorative arts journal L’Artista Moderno contributing articles and designs for furnishing interiors. He corresponded regularly with Soffici, for whom he produced xylographs for the journal Lacerba and thanks to whom he came into contact with Cubism. His first personal exhibition was in London in 1920 at the Chelsea Art club. In the same year Prampolini presented him in Rome at the Casa d’Arte italiana, and in Geneva he included Galante in a line-up from Balla to Sironi, Depero, Russolo and Dottori. He began painting in 1922, observing the Tuscan Macchiaioli and Cézanne for “his way of structuring his paintings”; as he himself wrote to Braque “for his way of constructing an unreal space simply by using different tones”. In 1929, influenced by Lionello Venturi and Persico, he joined forces with Chessa, Levi, Menzio, Paolucci and J. Boswell and the Gruppo dei Sei. In the same year, the group mounted its first exhibition, on the occasion of which he was criticized by Soldati but defended by E. Zanzi. Soon after, A. Grande defined him as one of the truest representatives of the Strapaese movement. He held some exhibitions in Turin up until the end of the 1950s and he died there in 1969.