Francesco Di Cocco

Francesco Di Cocco, Italian painter born in Rome on July 1, 1900 to Florentine parents and died in the same city on May 24, 1989, is an emblematic figure of 20th-century Italian art. After graduating from a technical institute and a brief period at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 1917 under Duilio Cambellotti, he participates in World War I in Albania in 1918, where he discovers his passion for painting inspired by Giacomo Balla's Futurist dynamism. He debuts in 1925 at the III Roman Biennale at the invitation of Ugo Oppo and the following year exhibits at the I Mostra del Novecento italiano in Milan, marking his entry into the Novecento trend with a return to order influenced by Venetian Renaissance tonal painting and De Chirico metaphysical elements.