Salvatore Scarpitta

Scarpitta was born in New York in 1919 from an Italian father, a sculptor residing in USA since the early 20th Century. Between 1936 and 1958 he lived in Rome, where he graduated at Academy of Fine Arts. He met Leo Castelli in Italy, who invited Scarpitta to display his works in his gallery in New York. That was the reason why Scarpitta went back to the United States, where in 1959 he displayed the most famous works in his production: canvases realized with bandages and cloth bands. In the early ‘60s he built two racing cars, displayed at Leo Castelli Gallery. This art-gallery manager of Trieste origins became his protector and he set up ten personal exhibitions until 1992. In USA Scarpitta attended all major artists, like Mark Rothko, David Smith, Willem de Kooning, Conrad Marca-Relli, along with critics such as Harold Rosenberg.

A large part of his activities took place in Italy, where Scarpitta attended the most innovative artists, open to international panorama: Alberto Burri, Piero Dorazio, Fontana, Turcato and Consagra. He had several exhibitions at Gallery La Tartaruga and his works were also shown at Biennial of Venice from 1972 to 1993. A personal exhibition was held in 2007 at Spazio Mazzotta in Milan, whereas the exhibition ‘Arte e La Tartaruga’ took place in Pescara as homage to Plinio De Martiis and Scarpitta was one of its protagonists.