Salvatore Scarpitta

Salvatore Scarpitta's (New York, 1919) father was an Italian sculptor who had emigrated to the United States, in the first decade of the 1900s. Salvatore studied in California first and then settled in Rome where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts. His works reveal an original aesthetic, one that is shamanistic and cosmopolitan, in sharp contrast with the unbridled materialism that has dominated much of American art. The sweeping frontality of Abstract Expressionism and the high craft of the Native Americans and, most especially, the emotional intensity of dirt track racing are the heterogeneous reference points of his art.

This book presents a refined selection of works by Salvatore Scarpitta accompanied by commentaries of the author himself and an anthology of International critical essays. The cars, sleds, wrapped paintings, assemblages, and ordinary objects are used and reinterpreted by the artist in order to create absolutely original works and installations great emotional impact. The selection of the works reproduced in this catalogue, though giving a general view on the artistical career of this Italo-American master, draws the attention of the reader on the works created in the years between 1975 and 2000.