Ponti Art Gallery is interested in buying and selling works
of art by this artist.
Salvo Biography
Salvatore Mangione, known as Salvo,
was an Italian artist whose career spanned over five
decades, marked by a journey through various art movements
and a distinctive evolution in style. Born on May 22, 1947,
in Leonforte, Sicily, Salvo's life and work were deeply
rooted in the cultural and artistic heritage of Italy. His
family moved to Turin in 1956, which became his artistic
home and the place where he would live and work for the rest
of his life.
Salvo's early work was influenced by the Arte Povera
movement, a radical and political art movement that emerged
in Italy towards the end of the 1960s. During this period,
he befriended and collaborated with other influential
Italian modernists, including Mario Merz and Alighiero
Boetti, with whom he shared a studio until 1971. Arte
Povera, which translates to 'poor art,' was characterized by
the use of everyday materials to challenge and disrupt the
commercialization of art.
In the initial phase of his career, Salvo's work focused on
the concept of the artist's identity. He created
photographed self-portraits where he staged himself in the
style of famous artists like Raphael and incorporated his
likeness into newspaper photographs. His practice also
included photomontages and sculpture, with marble
gravestones engraved with self-deprecating or ironic text,
such as "Io sono il migliore" (I am the best) from 1970.
By 1973, Salvo made a significant shift in his artistic
practice, turning towards traditional painting. This move
was unconventional for an artist deeply involved in
Conceptualism, but it led to the creation of his best-known
work. From the early 1980s, Salvo began producing abstracted
landscape and cityscape paintings, which remained his focus
for the majority of his career. These works are notable for
their masterful rendering of natural light and vibrant
depiction of natural and urban scenes. Salvo's paintings
often presented a specificity of dawn, daylight, dusk, or
darkness, even in highly stylized forms.
Salvo's landscapes and cityscapes were not just visual
representations but also meditations on the passage of time.
Many of his works were named after seasons, months, or times
of day, reflecting his interest in light and the temporal
aspect of life. His oeuvre is described as an uber-colorful
dreamworld in oil paint, with architectural and natural
motifs of the Italian countryside and beyond, as his travels
took him to Northern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Throughout his career, Salvo exhibited widely across Europe,
including several retrospectives. He was also invited to
participate in high-profile exhibitions such as documenta 5
in 1972 and the Venice Biennale in 1976 and 1984. His work
has frequently appeared on the auction market across Europe,
with his auction record being €125,500, achieved in June
2022 for his late-career painting "La Valle" (2003).
Salvo's artistic journey was one of continuous exploration
and transformation. He was an artist who refused to be
confined by the expectations of the movements he was
associated with. Instead, he charted his own path, creating
a body of work that was both a tribute to and a profanation
of the Old Masters. His paintings, characterized by
anachronistic elements, balanced between the great subject
and the kitsch idyll, neutralizing the significance of
content.
Salvo's legacy is that of a conceptual painter who defined
his position within a space that stretched from a southern
Arcadia to the coldly monumental architecture of pre-Fascist
Italy, to neon-lit pinball machines. His work veiled its
claim to absolute artificiality with pleasant allusions to
art history while using painterly artifice to neutralize a
desire for "beautiful" canvases.
After many years of prolific painting and artistic success,
Salvo passed away in his adopted hometown of Turin on
September 12, 2015. His final work as an artist was a
testament to his enduring influence on Italian art and his
crucial place in the history of art. Salvo's work continues
to be celebrated and studied, solidifying his reputation as
a singular and ever-explorative artist whose impact on the
art world remains significant.
Salvo Quotes and
Sales of Works
Ponti Art Gallery selects and deals with paintings by the
artist. Upon request, we provide free estimates and
evaluations, communicate prices, quotations, and current
market values.
If you are interested in BUYING or SELLING works by the
artist, contact us immediately.
If you wish to sell or receive an evaluation of the
works:
Send us a frontal photo of the painting, one of the back,
and one of the signature. Also, indicate the dimensions of
the work. Inform us about the purchase origin of the work
and any kind of available documentation (purchase
receipts, certificates of authenticity, publications). One
of our operators will respond to you on the same day. We
guarantee maximum confidentiality and extreme
professionalism.
If you wish to purchase works by the painter: Contact us
and let us know your request. We will inform you about the
available works. We also offer the possibility to
subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, through which you will be
informed at the beginning of each month about the latest
acquisitions of the art gallery.
You can send us pictures of the work: