Fausto Pirandello

Fausto Pirandello, born in Rome on June 17, 1899, and died in the same city on November 30, 1975, was one of the most important Italian painters of the 20th century. Son of the renowned playwright Luigi Pirandello and Maria Antonietta Portolano, Fausto grew up in an environment rich with artistic and literary stimuli, which led him to pursue painting from an early age. After interrupting his classical studies due to military service in 1917, he dedicated himself passionately to art, first studying sculpture with Sigismondo Lipinski and then deepening his painting skills at the Libera Scuola di Nudo of the Rome Academy under the guidance of Felice Carena.

Fausto Pirandello made his debut in 1925 at the III Roman Biennale with the work “Bagnanti,” a theme he would revisit throughout his career, and the following year he participated in the Venice Biennale. In 1927, he moved to Paris, where he studied the works of Cézanne, the Cubists, and artists such as Picasso, De Chirico, and Severini, coming into contact with the group of “Italiens de Paris.” His Parisian stay profoundly influenced his artistic research, enriching it with new languages and inspirations.

His painting is distinguished by a realism of everyday life, often oriented toward harsh and unflinching aspects of reality, expressed through a dense and rough pictorial material. Pirandello’s style ranges from Cubism to tonalism, up to realistic-expressionist forms, with an intellectual vision that transforms the naturalistic data into a magical realism with an archaic and metaphysical flavor. Fausto Pirandello is considered one of the representatives of the Roman School, but stands out for his originality and solitary research. In 1963-64, he exhibited at the “Peintures italiennes d’aujourd’hui” show in the Middle East and North Africa. He died in Rome in 1975, leaving behind a valuable artistic legacy, a witness to a psychological and investigative inquiry that reflects the spirit of his father Luigi Pirandello.