Sciltian Gregorio
((Russia, 1900 - 1985))
- His works have been shown in pretigious public institutions, in Italy and aboad
- Included in major Biennals (Venice, Milan)
- Included in major museums collections
- International visibility
- His works are in public and private collections, in Italy and abroad
- Reviewed by authoritative critics, art historians, poets and writers
“The one true and supreme purpose of the art of painting has been and always will be to achieve the illusion of reality” (Gregorio Sciltian)
Gregorio Sciltian was an Italian-Armenian painter. He was born in Nakhichevan - now part of Rostov-on-Don, Russia - in 1900. Belonging to a wealthy family, after finishing high school, he moved to Moscow, where he continued his classical studies and began to devote himself to the study of fine arts. Because of the October Revolution, in 1919 he leaves his native country. He lived in Vienna, Paris, Berlin and with his wife moved to Italy, Rome, in 1923. Here he met various intellectuals and important painters such as Carlo Carrà, Filippo de Pisis, Antonio Donghi, Giuseppe Capogrossi and Giorgio de Chirico, who would become a point of reference for him.
Sciltian was mainly influenced by the Futurists and Cubists - known during his youth - the Caravaggio and Flemish painters Van Eyck and Brueghel. His painting recovers the Caravaggesque and Flemish traditions with a realism of impressive photographic fidelity: a lenticular perfection achieved with a material of compact chromaticity and a technique borrowed from ancient painting.
In 1925 he participated in the Third Roman Biennale, and in 1926 he exhibited his works at the 15th Venice Biennale. From 1927 to 1932 he lived with his wife in Paris, where he had already exhibited in several Parisian Salons. International success came in 1928 with his participation in the Exposition de l'Art Russe at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. In 1933 he returned to Italy and settled in Milan. In 1940 he participated in the Milan Triennale, and several times he was present again at the Venice Biennale.
In 1947 he founded with Pietro Annigoni and brothers Antonio and Xavier Bueno the "Modern Painters of Reality" movement, to counter the emergence of various informal and abstract currents. Sciltian died in Rome on April 1, 1985.
His works can be found in major national museums in Italy and abroad - Uffizi, Vatican Museums, GNAM and GAMEC in Bergamo, MART Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Luxembourg Museum, Royal Museum of Belgium - and in important private collections in Italy and abroad.