Sandro Chia was one of the foremost artists during the resurgent interest in painting in the 1980s. He established himself as a major artist of the movement in Italian figurative painting known as the Transavanguardia, a Neo-Expressionist movement that sought to re-emphasize color and representation in reaction to the Conceptual Art of the times. His works were exhibited in many important museums and galleries internationally, and featured in almost every major museum exhibition during that era including Zeitgeist in 1982. In a career spanning over four decades, some of the exhibition milestones include the Biennale of Paris, San Paolo and three different iterations of the Venice Biennale.
In his expressive paintings, Chia celebrates man’s sensuality, vitality and relationship with nature. Assimilating culture and imagery from the troves of art history, particularly the Italian Renaissance and Futurism, he depicts narratives of eroticism, melancholy and death, often abound with historical cameos and references. Chia’s main protagonists are larger-than-life, heroic male figures imbued with an enigmatic sense of mission, perhaps manifestations of his own identity. He paints with vigorous brushstrokes of vibrant color that energizes the entire surface.
