Galleria Giustini/Stagetti presents the exhibition Salvatore Fancello: Works from a Private Collection, dedicated to a group of works by the Sardinian artist. These works, exhibited for the first time since the 1942 retrospective at the Pinacoteca di Brera, testify the originality and innovative strength of Fancello's plastic and graphic language, confirming his fundamental role in the Italian art scene between the two world wars.
Born in Dorgali in 1916, Salvatore Fancello died prematurely in 1941 at just 25 years old in Bregu Rapit, on the Greek-Albanian front.
Since childhood, he showed a keen interest in drawing and sculpture, a passion that led his parents to enroll him in a training school. Later, he worked as an apprentice in the workshop of artisan Ciriaco Piras, where Fancello came into contact with traditional techniques for working materials such as leather, wood, and ceramics. This foundational training was pivotal for his artistic growth, shaped by a culture passed down through generations. After his apprenticeship, in 1930, following the death of both parents, Fancello received a scholarship that allowed him to move to Monza and attend L’Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche (ISIA), where he studied under teachers such as Marino Marini, Edoardo Persico, and Giuseppe Pagano. Here, he established ties with other Sardinian artists like Giovanni Pintori and Costantino Nivola, distinguishing himself as one of the most talented students.
As a ceramist and graphic artist, Fancello immediately proved to be an extraordinary experimenter with a unique originality. His fluid, immediate style, infused with childhood memories, diverged from the rationalist trends of the time, reflecting his interest in modern expressive language, international movements such as Surrealism, and his knowledge of Eastern calligraphy and painting. Fancello depicted a magical natural world, populated by domestic and wild animals, farm creatures, and exotic beasts, characterized by unusual movements and strongly anti-naturalistic colors, yet harmoniously integrated into their surroundings. His style is dynamic, elusive, and vital, far from any form of mannerism.
At ISIA, he specialized in ceramics, further deepening his knowledge through significant experiences in the workshops of Virgilio Ferraresso in Padua and Tullio Mazzotti in Albisola, where he encountered the works of artists like Lucio Fontana, with whom he developed a mutual admiration. Fancello experimented with innovative techniques in creating colorful terracotta, and later on maiolica pieces characterized by precious, iridescent glazes. In 1936, he gained recognition at the VI Triennale, directed by Pagano—one of Italy’s most important exhibitions between the wars—exhibiting his ceramics and a large litho ceramic panel created in collaboration with Costantino Nivola, the first of many joint projects. Fancello's artistic production focused on ceramic sculpture and drawing, achieving extraordinary results in depicting an imaginary, metaphysical world without spatial or temporal references. His subjects blending harmoniously in a suspended atmosphere, reflecting an interest for storytelling, a primitivist inclination and limitless creativity. However, his creative evolution spanned less than a decade. In 1937, Fancello began military service, between his military draft and the war, there was little time left for his artistic pursuits, which he continued during military leave until his death on the Albanian front.
A year after his death, between March and April 1942, the Pinacoteca di Brera, under the direction of Giuseppe Palanti, dedicated an extensive retrospective to the Sardinian artist, curated by Giuseppe Pagano and Giovanni Romano and promoted by the Centro di Azione per le Arti. The exhibition featured over eighty works, including ceramics and graphic art created between 1933 and 1940. Many of these works were owned by prominent cultural figure of the time, including Giulio Carlo Argan and Carla Albini, as well as members of Milan's architectural rationalism circle such as Giuseppe Pagano, Mario Labò, Giancarlo Palanti, Giulia Veronesi, Gianni Romano, and ceramists Tullio Mazzotti, Lino Berzoini, and Ivos Pacetti. These individuals were not only collectors but also friends and supporters, deeply moved by his original talent and untimely death.
On display at Galleria Giustini / Stagetti is a group of works from a private Milanese collection, exhibited here for the first time since the 1942 retrospective. The Earthly Paradise, a 1940 etching, tells of an instinctive and analytical balance with the fantasy and lightness characteristic of the artist, celebrating the intimate bond between man and nature in a metaphysical space. The same expressive immediacy, spontaneity, and untainted character are evident in the four exhibited animal sculptures, all featuring elongated formats—a preference of Fancello's that also shaped his drawings, emphasizing spatial extension. The modeling is immediate and dynamic, as is the use of color. The creative freedom, and the playful vitality of his language, established Fancello—a reserved and shy shepherd’s son—as one of the leading figures in Italian ceramics and an artist who elevated ceramics to the realm of fine art.
