Bruno Caruso (; 8 August 1927 – 4 November 2018) was an Italians artist, graphic designer and writer. He spent much of his adult life working in Rome.
Caruso's work focused on the moral, political and ethical flaws of the 20th Century. He fought against the influence of Sicilian Mafia in Italian politics, protested against the Vietnam War, campaigned against the use of
Bruno Caruso - Official Website
Over the course of his career, he created more than 25 collections of drawings, founded celebrated Sicilian cultural magazines, Sicilia and Ciclope, and illustrated works by Machiavelli, Kafka, Leonardo Sciascia, Giovanni Arpino and Giuseppe Ungaretti amongst many others.
Caruso's work has ended up in the collections of notable 20th-century patrons of the arts, including Helena Rubenstein, Arthur Jeffress and Irene Brin.
Life and works
Early life and education (1927–1948)
Bruno Caruso was born in
Palermo, on 8 August 1927, to Giuseppe Caruso and Maria Cucco.
As a child he learned to draw under the tutelage of his father, mainly copying the work of classical masters like Leonardo da Vinci,
Pisanello and
Andrea Mantegna.
His first collection of drawings was completed at age 5 (1931–32); a
bestiary featuring 'Il Cane' (1932), a meticulously crafted drawing of a dog, textured by needlepoint (see image).
Caruso's early influences were the famous Orto botanico di Palermo and Monreale Cathedral, but as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War and eventually World War II ignited, he turned his attention to depicting the horror and isolation of war. At age 19, he left Italy for the second time to visit Munich and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, where he was profoundly affected by the work of Gustav Klimt and George Grosz.
Immediately after the end of World War II, Caruso signed up to study law at the University of Palermo. He earned a living by writing dissertations for exchange students, and claimed to have submitted over 100 successful papers during his time at the university.
In 1948 Caruso took his first trip to Prague where, confronted by the Nazi atrocities of World War II, he completed his first official collection entitled "Deutschland über alles", after George Grosz.
Artistic director, editor and graphic designer
In 1953, Caruso received a commission from the Sicilian Government to create
Sicilia, a magazine series celebrating Sicilian art and culture. As artistic director, Caruso was charged with setting up one of the first modern printing presses in Sicily, and forging strong relationships with artists, intellectuals and photographers from around the world, including
Richard Avedon,
Herbert List and
Brassai.
In 1974 the magazine created a special edition in honour of Caruso, featuring a bespoke cover and 117 of his drawings.
The early success of Sicilia caught the eye of Irene Brin and Gaspero del Corso, founders of the Galleria dell'Obelisco in Rome, a famous hub for Italy's artistic elite. Caruso became the director of the gallery's publishing arm and struck up close friendships with poets De Liberto, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Leonardo Sinisgalli, and painters Ben Shahn, Fabrizio Clerici, Colombotto Rosso and Renzo Vespignani.
He also published the first books on The Triumph of Death (Palermo), Italian sculptor Giacomo Serpotta and German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden.
Breakthrough (1952–1956)
Caruso's association with the
Galleria dell'Obelisco led to his first major solo show in 1953, followed by his first
monograph in 1954, curated by Leonardo Sinisgalli. The collection made Caruso's name internationally, featuring what Sinisgalli labelled
"a tiny universe of jugglers, sleep-walkers, acrobats, time-wasters, street urchins and craftsmen darting around cheerfully like fish caught in the net of a tragic, silent and unstable world",
He had his first solo show in London at the Arthur Jeffress Gallery in 1955, and saw his work appear in the collections of celebrated patrons of the arts across the United States like Helena Rubenstein, Larry Aldrich, Richard Avedon, Walter Bareiss, Eric Estorick, Joan Whitney Payson, Stanley J. Seeger and John Hay Whitney.
File:Bruno Caruso - Uomo arrampicato - 1950.jpg| Uomo Arrampicato/Climbing Man (1955). Oil, 90x90.
File:Bruno Caruso - Suonatori ambulanti - 1953.jpg| Suonatori ambulanti/Wandering Musicians (1953). Oil, 60x50. Nathan Cummings Collection, Chicago.
File:Bruno Caruso - Gelataio - 1953.jpg| Gelataio/Ice Cream Seller (1953). Oil, 60x50. Formerly in the Helena Rubenstein Collection, New York
File:Bruno Caruso - Uomo Sdraiato - 1952.jpg| Uomo sdraiato/Man Lying Down (1952). Ink Drawing. Formerly in the Olivetti Collection, Rome
File:Bruno Caruso - Giornalaio - 1952.jpg| Giornalaio/The News Stand (1952). Ink Drawing. Formerly in the Renato Giani Collection, Rome
File:Bruno Caruso - Deposito - 1952.jpg| Deposito/Wood Deposit (1952). Ink Drawing. Private Collection, Baltimore
Political drawings (1948–1973)
Back in Sicily, Caruso struck up a friendship with Girolamo Li Causi, leader of the Italian Communist Party, and began actively supporting the local peasant revolts. He completed a collection on the Portella della Ginestra massacre, and campaigned actively for the cultural emancipation of Sicily against the rise of
Sicilian Mafia.
His fight against the endemic corruption in Italian politics climaxed in the 1970s when he was fighting three concurrent legal cases against
Michele Sindona,
Giovanni Gioia and
Vito Ciancimino.
Throughout the 1950s he worked at Palermo's Psychiatric Hospital (the Real Casa dei Matti di Palermo), producing a damning series of studies highlighting the use of medieval curing techniques and abject conditions in the wards, contributing to a major overhaul of the system.
Over the following years Caruso travelled extensively to Iran, India, Thailand and Japan, studying Persian calligraphy and completing a series of drawings on dictatorships, famine, and the threat of nuclear warfare.
He returned to the United States in the month of the Kennedy assassination, guest of Jack Levine, Tennessee Williams and Ben Shahn. On this trip he completed commissions for Time Magazine, Fortune Magazine and Life Magazine magazines and, inspired by a meeting with Malcolm X, began work on Americana (1968) in which he championed the Civil Rights Movement and stood against the Vietnam War.
The fight against the Vietnam War became one of Caruso's most active political stands. He was invited to Hanoi by Phạm Văn Đồng, the prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and edited four books in support of their plight, including Vietnam: Biographia e documenti sull'aggressione imperialistica contro il popolo Vietnamita (1972). In 1972 he illustrated the last testament of Ho Chi Minh.
File:1959 - Malcolm, drawing for 'Americana'.jpg| Malcolm (1959). Ink Drawing for Americana.
File:Bruno Caruso - La Corsa Pazza, 1954.jpg| La corsa pazza/The Lunatic Run (1954). Ink and watercolour.
File:Bruno Caruso - Eichmann - 1963.jpg| Eichmann (1954). Ink Drawing for Pace in terra.
File:Bruno Caruso - Rivolta - 1961 .jpg| Rivolta/Revolt (1961). Ink Drawing, 63x50.
File:Bruno Caruso- Ammazziamo chi ci pare e piace - 1963.jpg| Ammazziamo chi ci pare e piace/We Kill Whoever we Please (1963). Ink Drawing for Pace in terra
File:Bruno Caruso - The Guilt Complex - 1964.jpg| Il complesso di colpa/The Guilt Complex (1964). Ink Drawing for Franz Kafka's The Penal Colony.
Death (2018)
Bruno Caruso died on 4 November 2018 at the
Regina Margherita hospice in
Rome. He was 91 years old. Days before his death, his son, Roberto Caruso, gave him a pencil and paper and, despite having refused to work for almost two years, he completed one final drawing: a melted, disfigured face (see image).
[ "Official Website"]
Museum collections
Honours
Key collections
Key monographs
Exhibitions (1950–1965)
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1951 — Palermo, Galleria Zabara: Sicilian Painters
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1951 — Palermo, Giovane Sicilia: Contemporary Painters
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1952 — Palermo, La Serenella: Bruno Caruso
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1952 — Palermo, Galleria Arcobaleno: Bruno Caruso
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1954 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: Joie de Vivre
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1954 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: Bruno Caruso
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1954 — Venice, Venice Biennale
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1954 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: 5 Painters, 5 Sculptors, American Federation of Arts
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1954 — Cincinnati, Cincinnati Museum of Modern Art: Young Italian Painters
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1954 — Wakefield, Wakefield City Art Gallery: Contemporary Italian Art
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1955 — US Tour, 20 Imaginary Views of the American Scene by 20 Italian Artists
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1955 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: Around the World
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1955 — London, Arthur Jeffress Gallery: Bruno Caruso
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1955 — Venice, Third Esso Prize
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1955 — Milan, Galleria del Sole: Paintings & Drawings by Bruno Caruso
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1955 — Rome, VII Rome Quadriennale
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1955 — Prato, 60 Masters for the Next 30 Years
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1955 — Minnesota, Weisman Art Museum: Contemporary Italian Art
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1955 — Sydney, L'Obelisco of Rome at David Jones
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1956 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: Bruno Caruso
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1956 — Zürich, Galerie H.U. Gasser: Bruno Caruso
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1956 — London, Tate Gallery: Modern Italian Art
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1956 — Turin, Galleria la Bussola: Bruno Caruso
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1956 — Venice, Galleria del Cavallino: Bruno Caruso
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1957 — Rome, Galleria d'Arte Moderna: In support of Exiled Hungarian Artists
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1958 — Palermo, Galleria Flaccovio: Bruno Caruso
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1958 — Milan, La Permanente: Young Italian Artists
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1958 — London, Arthur Jeffress Gallery: Bruno Caruso
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1958 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: Bruno Caruso
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1958 — Berlin, Akademie Der Kunst: Italienische Kunst Am XX Jahrhundert
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1958 — Paris, Galerie d'Art Moderne: Paris Biennale
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1959 — Lima, Pintura Italiana
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1959 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: Bruno Caruso
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1959 — San Francisco, Museum of Modern Art: Italy Three Directions
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1959 — Pisa, Contemporary Italian Graphic Work
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1959 — Paris, Galerie Rive Gauche: Bruno Caruso
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1959 — Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum: 20th Century Art of Italy
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1960 — Parma, Galleria del Teatro: Bruno Caruso
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1960 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: Bruno Caruso, New York Drawings
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1961 — Rome, Galleria Chiurazzi: 7 works by Bruno Caruso
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1961 — São Paulo, Galleria Sistina: Bruno Caruso
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1961 — Modena, Sala Comunale: Bruno Caruso
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1961 — Genoa, Galleria San Matteo: Bruno Caruso
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1961 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: The Sculptures of Bruno Caruso
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1961 — Rome, Galleria Il Torcoliere: Bruno Caruso, Drawings, Etchings, Lithographs
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1961 — Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco: Against Nazism
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1961 — Naples, Galleria Il Centro: Bruno Caruso
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1961 — Milan, Galleria la Colonna: Bruno Caruso
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1962 — Rome, Libreria al Ferro di Cavallo: Bruno Caruso, Pugno di Ferro
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1962 — Bologna, Galleria Bianco e Nero: Bruno Caruso
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1962 — Milan, Galleria Hoepli: Don't Forget
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1962 — New York, ACA Gallery: Italian Art Today
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1963 — Tokyo, Institute of Culture: Bruno Caruso and Franco Gentilini
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1963 — Rome, Galleria Don Chiscotte: Bruno Caruso
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1963 — Milan, Galleria Gianferrari: Bruno Caruso
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1963 — Bari, Galleria La Panchetta: Bruno Caruso
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1963 — New York, D'Arcy Gallery: Italian Drawing Today
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1963 — Alexandria, V Biennale of the Mediterranean
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1963 — Hamburg, Copenhagen: Junge Italienische Malerei
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1963 — Rome, Galleria Don Chiscotte: Masters of Italian Painting
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1963 — Rome, Galleria Sistina: Inauguration of 1963/64 Program
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1964 — Palermo, Arte al Borgo: Bruno Caruso
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1964 — Ferrara, Galleria Bigoni: Bruno Caruso
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1964 — Rome, ACA Gallery: Bruno Caruso
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1964 — Rome, Galleria Il Fante di Spade: New Italian Drawings
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1964 — Milan, Galleria 32: Caruso, Guttuso, Porzano
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1964 — Padua, Galleria Interni: Bruno Caruso
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1964 — Moscow, Exhibition of 6 Graphic Artists
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1964 — Rome, Galleria Penelope: Anthology of Drawings and Etchings
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1965 — Rome, Galleria Bianco e Nero: Bruno Caruso
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1965 — Milan, Galleria 32: Bruno Caruso
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1965 — Turin, Galleria l'Approdo: Paintings of Bruno Caruso
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1965 — Bari, Galleria la Panchetta: Graphic work of Bruno Caruso
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1965 — Caltanissetta, Graphic work of Bruno Caruso
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1965 — Rome, Palazzo delle Espozizioni: Quadriennale d'Arte
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1965 — Rome, ANPPIA: Anti-fascism and Resistance
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1965 — Milan, La Permanente: Biennale di Milano
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1965 — Florence, Palazzo Strozzi: XVII National Exhibition, Fiorino Award
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1965 — Parma, The Scalarini National Award for Political Drawings
