Salvatore Mangione, better known as Salvo, passed away yesterday at the age of 68 in Turin, where he was residing since a young age. Salvo was born in Leonforte, at the province of Enna, in 1947, but he spent most of his life in Turin, where he built his artistic career.
After joining different artistic tendencies during the 70’s in Paris, Salvo returned to Turin where he met with relevant the exponents of the Povera movement, such as Alighiero Boetti, Mario Merz, Gilberto Zorio and Giuseppe Penone at the gallery Gian Enzo Sperone. He avoided full commitment to any of the upcoming artistic movements, and began his artistic experimentations, such as the series of 12 self-portraits in mixed technique, adding newspapers shavings and the marble tomb-stones with different epitaphs. Indeed, most of Salvo’s work is tainted with existentialist dilemmas, exploring the relationship exploring the human perception of metaphysic subjects.
Another great area of interest for the artist was the paintings of the Early Renaissance, that he often revisited, creating different versions that included his self-portraits or his iconic Italian landscapes, of vivid colours and simplify structure. In 1982 the Van Hedendaagse Museum of Gand organised Salvo’s first retrospective exhibition, launching his career internationally. Among the most recent exhibitions it is important to highlight Settanta a Roma, organised at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.