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Gianni Testa
Gianni Testa was born on october 23rd 1936, near Trevi Fountain in Rome.
Rome has played a fundamental role in his artistic development: the numerous possibilities to visit exhibitions and museum there can never be underestimated. Rome gave him the chance of having a direct confrontation with the most stimulating activities in ltaly, in the world and thus widening his artistic horizons.
He studied at the Faculty of Architecture in Rome. He attended courses allowed him to deepen his knowledge already accumalated through self-study of the style, and techniques of artists from different periods.
After this he attended courses in sculpture given by Maestro Bartolini. During this period - around 1960 - Testa's activity can be placed side by side with that of Quaglia, Mazzacurati, Levi, and Fazzini.
ln 1962 he was invited by Fazzini to exhibit together with Quaglia, Mazzacurati, and Purificato. The positive reaction of the public and art critics encouraged him to continue his pictorial activity. During his graduai development he experimented with and then acquired new techniques and expressive styles, thus arriving at his own style within the field of art. He managed to put his personal artistic ideas into practice.
1967 was an important year for Testa's career. He held a personal exhibition at Montecatini. The local government in Rome acquired one of his works for the Museum in Palazzo Braschi. He won the first prize in the Trofeo Roma competition. In the same year he also won first prizes in C.I.A.C. and in the international competition "Città di Roma", and in the competition "Roma Viva" for figurative art.
He spent the following year producing a 3x5m painting for the church of Castel di Sangro. He continued to win awards, the VI Biennale Romana and at the Exhibition of Sacred Art in Bologna. He exhibited in Bologna, Cagliari, Chianciano, Genova, Piacenza, Sassari, Napoli, Alghero, Ferrara, Milano, Taranto, Bolzano, Reggio Calabria, Caserta, Sutri, Siracusa, and Rome. He also held exhibitions in Paris, Tokyo and Buffalo (U.S.A.).
His exhibitions at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, at Palazzo Braschi, Palazzo dei Congressi, the Gallery Manieri in Rome, and at Palazzo Comunale in Palermo are ali worthy of note. The works exhibited in Palermo were based on the theme "Apocalypse" and Testa gave space to his imagination and personal style.
He continued to take part in competitions and received both recognition and acclaim regarding his work. In 1977 he exhibited together with De Chirico, Guttuso, Calabria, Monachesi, Ghiglia, and Trotti. In this period he approached art as a symbol of self-revelation Testa enlarged, changed and enriched his concepts.
In the last few years he has taken part in various collective exhibitions including "FAO - World Famine", "Homage to Salvatore Ouasimodo" and "Memories of the Ardeatine".
Ernesto D'Orsi organized a personal exhibition for Testa at the Art Gallery La Barcaccia in Rome. In this exhibition the large paintings depict the historical events in the life of Anita Garibaldi. The paintings revealed with intensive expression her turbulant role, left unseen due to the attention given to her more famous companion.
At present Testa takes part in the television programme "Mattina 2" in which he makes his artistic contribution.
