Livio Orazio Valentini - biography

L.O.Valentini - Nuovissima guida alla pittura di Luca Signorelli (1985) - Litografia

Livio Orazio Valentini (1920) is an artist, sculptor and potter. His artistic life began in 1945, after having lived the horrors of the concentration camp of Buchenwald.
Initially a figurative painter, he is attracted by the informal which he elaborates with personal and original style giving life to what some critics have called “informal Orvietan”. The 70’s are also to be remembered for his experience in sculpture and pottery and of course his Sacred Art.

Sensitive to civil and social values, cultural concerns are infused into his work and manifested with great intensity. The Crucifix (1962) in wood, iron and ceramic and the masterpiece “Annihilation at Camorena”.

In 1967 he moves his studio to Rome, Via Monti della Farina. Valentini stays in the Capital for a year.
From 1968 to 1970 he produces work of a naturalistic style: paintings, terracotta sculptures, sketches and serial graphics.

From 1970 Valentini’s art represents the violent relationship between Man and Nature. With the observation of the army of “Hybris” Humans and animals on the environment he begins his lengthy “Cycle of the Birds” his painting being still curtly informal and fullof great dramaturgical expressions.

L.O.Valentini - Nuovissima guida alla pittura di Luca Signorelli (1985) - Litografia

It is always in 1970, with the knowledge that his birthplace, although full of artistic expressions, does not have an adequate training facility worthy of its prestigious history and he therefore contributes to the foundation of the local Art school.

In 1971 he takes part in seminars and research at the University of Parma on the meaning of expression, held by professor Pietro M. Toesca this is an occasion for confrontation and comparison with intellectuals and writers, as a consequence Valentini earns respect and prestige.

In 1975 he goes to Portugal.

Until 1977 past art had been unable to give the artist such fascination to bring about variations in his style and aesthetic concepts, yet with the realization of “ Ten Icons of the Cathedral of Orvieto” he begins a dialogue with history and literally “takes off” dismounting and redesigning sculpture lines and passages of the façade of the cathedral.

In 1979 he spends time in Berlin. His experience of the “Wall” incited in him sensitivity and disdain. On return to Italy he published a monograph “ A Wall, annihilation of the Birds” It carried strong accusations and together with other works had strong images of the past and present.

1982 invited by Professor Alan Graham, Valentini goes to the U.S.A. to Atens University(Georgia) The comparison between American and Italian art forms influences his work and is manifested in his pubic piece in 1982 in Cahen square, the monument to the 3rd regiment of Grenadiers.

In 1985 his trip to Nigeria brings about strong African influences which amplify the expressive prospective of an already fully mature artist.

Yet again in 1985 Valentini returns to the past and begins a profound observation of the frescos of Luca Signorelli in the Cathedral, the technique is that used in 1977, he “isolates the figures and makes them “earthly. The idea is transformed into a masterpiece: first 6 lithographs and then a year later the wonderful cycle of “Signorelli’s End of the World” the work is exhibited between March and May 1986 in Saint John’s Cloister in Orvieto , part of the celebrations for the VII centenary of the Cathedral.

In1988 he creates a stand at “Cibus” for Barilla. In 1989 after having visited Elephas Hall near the Spanish fortress L’Aquila, he comes across the skeleton of an enormous animal from the Quaternary age. The meeting creates strong feelings in the artist and so begins a series “Escape from the Quaternary”.: cosmic landscapes of great dimensions, stories of creation, symbolic trophies in terra cotta and wood and iron sculptures.

IN 1997 he presents an exhibition dedicated to him at Aiken, university of South Carolina. In 1999 he is invited to the same university to hold a series of seminars on Italian contemporary art. A monumental piece of his art is soon to be installed in a new architectural complex within the university of South Carolina