Sergio Franzoi

Sergio Franzoi (10 July 1929 – 16 February 2022)

Biography Sergio Franzoi was born on the island of Lido di Venezia on 10 July 1929, where he spent his childhood under the fascist regime of Mussolini. He produced a significant portion of his youthful artistic activity before relocating to the city of Venice around the 1960s. His father was a construction contractor in Venice, and it was here that Sergio Franzoi enrolled in the artistic high school in 1943, at the height of World War II. During this period, he developed his initial artistic and painting skills, combining formal education with self-taught activities. He continued his studies in 1947 when he attended the high school of pictorial training (school of painting) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, studying under Giuseppe Cesetti and graduating in 1952.

The first steps in collective exhibitions Starting from 1948 until 1963, for fifteen years, Sergio Franzoi substantially participated in almost all the annual exhibitions of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, with the exceptions of the editions in 1951 and 1954. During this period, he won numerous awards for his paintings. The initial works presented in the group exhibitions were characterized by the typical themes of those years. Transitioning from scenes of labor with social undertones ("Pescherecci," 1948, "Pescatori," 1952), the focus shifted to views and landscapes ("Caldonazzo," 1949, "Capanne sulla spiaggia," 1950, "Case a Burano," 1953, "Paesaggio di Marghera" , 1953, and "Paesaggio di Malamocco," 1953).

In 1956, Franzoi achieved his first notable recognition—an accomplishment marked by a joint third prize in the painting section, shared with Paolo Meneghesso. The paintings presented, which secured him the third position in the artistic award, included "Paesaggio di Olanda" (Landscape of Holland), "Rimorchiatore in laguna" (Tugboat in the Lagoon), and "Paesaggio Olandese" (Dutch Landscape). These three artworks harked back to realistic painting, remaining closely aligned with his early works from preceding years. This inaugural presence at the Venetian exhibition of artists would be followed by numerous others—sixteen in total—each replete with commendations.

The success of the fifties and sixties In the 1950s, Franzoi also took part in other painting competitions within the Venetian context, including the Burano Prize on the island of the same name. His entries featured paintings with Venetian lagoon settings, such as "Tramonto" (Sunset) in 1956, which partially echoed the characteristics of his early artistic endeavors.

The completed mosaic is now visible inside the former Civil Hospital of Lido di Venezia in the area of the indoor pool overlooking the beach, on the northeast wall of the complex. The drawings and preparatory cartoons are preserved in Spilimbergo, in the province of Pordenone, at the Gallery and Archive of the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli.

The last decades of his artistic journey were characterized by refined and elegant explorations of the female nude; distinctive signs and colors came together in his artworks to rediscover the human body as a kind of landscape.

Franzoi concluded his career in the early 2000s after over sixty years of artistic activity, participating in his final exhibitions.

Sergio Franzoi died in Venice on 16 February 2022, at the age of 92. He is buried in the monumental cemetery of "San Michele" on the island of Venice.

Style Sergio Franzoi approached painting from an original experience, such as the sight of the sea, fishermen hauling their nets on the beach against the grand reflection of the sun on the waves, the ever-changing and captivating emergence of phenomena against the infinite and dazzling background of light, the uncertain and enticing boundary between the familiar and the unknown. These images are evident in his early works, but soon the captivating and intriguing universe of eros will draw him in.

Still beaches or undetermined places where the orgy of deafening rhythms has not yet invaded, the sickly putrefaction of post-bathing, the uncontrollable avalanche of advertising. Spaces where dreams dance on the trajectories of gazes - unfathomable paths of desire - where unforeseen adventures, sweet unions, penetrations, warm embraces blossom in the soft blending of flesh. Giuseppe Mazzariol once defined them as "intense landscapes of life," stating, "... Nothing else. Sometimes the flower of a mouth emerges, the delicate almond of the eye or sex opens to presence. A great calm rises from these supine traces where white prevails and unifies." In fact, figures and landscapes blur as the imagination ventures into paths destined to be lost in the whirlwind of fantasy, in an inexhaustible succession of encounters and situations. "Dopo la catastrofe", oil on canvas, sec. XX, 127 x 151 cm, BA0424, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia - Ca' Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art; "Il Clown", oil on canvas, 72 x 72 cm, sec. XX, BA0377, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia - Ca' Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art; "Paesaggio", oil on canvas, 74 x 89 cm, sec. XX, BA0531, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia - Ca' Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art; "Paesaggio di Marghera", oil on canvas, 75 x 70 cm, sec. XX, BA0156, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia - Ca' Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art.