Biography
Born in Rome in 1935, by virtue of the fruitful training period undertaken at the studio of the sculptor Edgardo Mannucci, he knows the work of Burri: the work of the great informal artist will influence his early works (1955-1957). Just think of the monochrome and textured canvases in dark tones covered with torn and torn nylon stockings, referring to poverty and pain. Politically engaged (joins the Communist Party), in 1955 he met Tano Festa and Mario Schifano, with whom he established a deep relationship of friendship and cultural exchange: together with Francesco Lo Savio, Pino Pascali, Jannis Kounellis and Fabio Mauri they will give life to the School in Piazza del Popolo, which has its landmarks in the galleries La Tartaruga di Plinio de Martis and La Salita. In 1960 the first solo show at the La Salita gallery; in 1961-1962 he participated with Lo Savio, Festa and Schifano in the exhibition New perspectives of Italian painting, at Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna. In the sixties, the growing attention for mass communication shifts the artist’s interest to stereotyped images and symbols, taken from street furniture, through which he synthesizes a new image of reality (Testa di Lupa Capitolina, 1964). The Frammenti capitolini exhibition at Alibert’s gallery dates back to 1964. The evident influence of American pop art is tempered by the use of ancestral symbols and ideological emblems (the sickle and hammer, the swastika) that act directly on the observer’s unconscious. He also participates in the Venice Biennale presented by Maurizio Calvesi and, the following year, in the IX Roman Quadrennial. The long series of Half Dollar (1966-1967) testifies to Angeli’s interest in the strategies of power, placing attention on the half dollar symbol of American capitalism. In 1967 he exhibited at the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil. At the end of the sixties Angeli is engaged in a reflection on the theme of the Vietnam war, while in the eighties his artistic path approaches figuration: with stylized forms he portrays symbols of his childhood and obelisks, deserted squares and capitals. In 1978 he took part again in the Venice Biennale in the section Urban iconosphere curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, also presenting a short film. In 1982 he participated in the important 30 years retrospective of Italian art 1950-80, organized in Villa Manzoni, Lecco. With the puppet series, which began in 1984, Angeli creates a sort of ironic reinterpretation of his own existential parable. In 1985 he took part in the 11th Roman Quadrennial, while a few years later, in 1988, a retrospective was dedicated to him at the Casa del Machiavelli (1958-72) near Florence. He died in Rome in 1988, at only 53 years of age.