Cipriano Efisio Oppo

Early life

Trained at the Istituto di belle arti in Rome, he began his career as a caricaturist for L’Idea Nazionale. From 1910 he devoted himself to painting, tending towards the fauves, in particular Henri Matisse. In 1914 he contributed to the exhibition given by the Roman Secession. He then aligned himself with the national tradition.

Cultural organizer

From the First World War onwards he tirelessly dedicated himself to organising Italian cultural and artistic life. As well as being a highly regarded art critic writing for Rome's La Tribuna, his commitment led him to becoming an ambassador for art in public institutions. He became a deputy to Parliament and, in 1932, artistic director of the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution. He was then appointed secretary of the Direttorio Nazionale dei Sindacati delle Arti Plastiche (National Directorate of Unions of the Plastic Arts) and secretary of the Consiglio Superiore delle Belle Arti (Superior Council of Fine Arts). However, in this field, his most successful work was setting up the Quadriennale di Roma, born from one of his ideas and guided by him as its secretary-general over its first four shows from 1931 to 1943.

During the 1930s and 1940s, he believed he should abstain from exhibiting in Italy, precisely because of his political-administrative activity in the artistic field, not that this stopped his participating in several shows abroad, such as L'art italien des XIX et XX siècles (19th and 20th Century Italian Art) at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 1935 and at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Post-War

Deemed free to return to the Quadriennale as an artist, in its 5th (1948) and 6th (1951) shows.

From 1949 to 1950, he was affiliated to the important collezione Verzocchi, as well as painting a self-portrait La fiorista. The Verzocchi collection is now held at the Pinacoteca Civica of Forlì.

Among his works are: