An artist of international stature, Piero Ruggeri has earned the admiration of critics such as Calvesi, Carluccio, Crispolti, Parmiggiani, and Vallora
Piero Ruggeri (Turin, 1930–2009), one of the leading informal artists of his generation, managed to renew the language of Italian painting through a gestural style characterized by an intense depth of expressive and chromatic values.
Trained at the Albertina Academy in Turin, he became integrated into the city’s cultural scene. He participated in three editions of “Francia-Italia,” a group exhibition of significant importance at the time, and developed connections with the critic Luigi Carluccio. He also participated in the Venice Biennales of 1955, 1957, and 1959, and in 1962, presented by Guido Ballo, he was given a solo exhibition at this important event. In the 1950s and 1960s, Ruggeri was featured in 1963 at the first major showcase of Italian Informal art, organized by Maurizio Calvesi during the VII Modigliani Prize in Livorno.
He participated in the Venice Biennales in 1955, 1957, 1959, and had a solo exhibition in 1962
Over time, Ruggeri experimented with various directions in his research path, initially focused on the subtle control of elements. His gesture was never driven by the romantic impulse of Action Painting or, even less so, by pure automatism, resulting in works that were never accidental. In distancing himself from certain excesses of French Informal art and American Abstract Expressionism, the artist followed an original path, evoking, for example, landscape suggestions or marking the pictorial space and color (reds, earth tones, blacks) with underground paths and feverish twists. Even his more recent work – praised by critics such as Enrico Crispolti, Marco Vallora, Sandro Parmiggiani and Marco Goldin and supported by the Lucchetta brothers of the Euromobil Group in several exhibitions – has managed to establish itself with the same rigor in painting, understood in the highest and most coherent moral sense of discovery, investigation and, why not, effort, thus avoiding the trap of self-satisfaction and repetition.
In his paintings, lit by reds, earth tones and blacks, one can identify underground paths and feverish upheavals
As Sandro Parmiggiani wrote in conclusion to his essay for the major retrospective at Palazzo Magnani in Reggio Emilia: “Piero Ruggeri has managed to resist and stay true to his calling, contributing, with his work, to giving shape to an identity, that of Italian painting, which proves to be much richer and more varied, important and universal, than many have tried to make us believe.”
He sees his art as a continuous discovery, thus avoiding the trap of self-satisfaction
