Eugenio Santoro

Eugenio Santoro (27 August 1920 – 13 May 2006), was an Italian-born Swiss outsider artist.

Biography Born in Castelmezzano, in the province of Potenza (Basilicata), he started working as a carpenter but had to quit his job to go to the front during World War II. He fought in Albania and Greece, but got arrested and deported to Germany, where he was sentenced to hard labor in the Rhineland for two years.

Santoro was released in 1944 and returned to his native town, where he worked as a municipal employee and then as an owner of a small woodworking shop. In 1964, due to financial difficulties, he moved to Switzerland with his wife, finding employment as a laborer at the chocolate factory "Camille Bloch" in Courtelary.

His passion for art began in 1979, with a painting of the factory; then he came to sculpture. His works are mostly wooden sculptures depicting human and animal figures. His works include Mary Magdalene (1984) and The Egyptienne (1989). The first exhibition of his sculptures was held in 1986 at the "Espace Noir" of Saint-Imier, chaired by Maurice Born.

Three years later, Born introduced him to Michel Thévoz, curator of the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, who organized a permanent exhibition of his works. In 2004, a second exhibition was organized in the same place. Santoro died at Courtelary in 2006.