Ernesto Quarti Marchiò (1907-1982) Tuareg Girl

Ernesto Quarti Marchiò (1907-1982) Tuareg girl, oil on canvas, cm. 50x60
Signed lower left.
With frame: cm. 73x83x5

His marked aptitude for drawing led the family to enroll him at a very young age in the "Andrea Fantoni" School of Art, allowing him, at the age of only twelve, to attend the courses of professor Ponziano Loverini at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo until 1922. From 1923 he worked in the studio of the decorator Giovanni Fasciotti and later in that of the fresco artist Umberto Marigliani. His first public experience dates back to 1925, at the V Triennale della Carrara in Bergamo.
In 1926 he made a trip to Ischia where he made numerous impressions of the Neapolitan environment, which constitute the main nucleus of his first personal exhibition; in fact, upon his return he exhibited these works at the gallery in Piazza Dante in Bergamo (Permanent), obtaining his first great sales and critical success. In March 1927, after the success achieved the previous year, he presented himself in the same gallery with a personal exhibition of about forty works.
Also in 1927 he made his first trip to Africa, together with his friend Romualdo Locatelli, with whom he ventured to Gabès in Tunisia and Libya, thus increasing his experiences and bringing back to his homeland numerous drawings and sketches that form the inspiring nucleus of the numerous works of an orientalist nature; after this experience, in the 1930s he returned to Africa numerous times, moreover frequent stays in Paris starting from 1928. In 1929 he met the well-known artist Jules Pascin of whom he will always have an excellent memory and deep esteem. He still exhibited at the Galleria Permanente in Bergamo with two personal exhibitions: in April 1929 and in November 1930, together with the sculptor Costante Coter. In 1931 he exhibited in Varese, with Romualdo Locatelli, in a personal exhibition at the Prevosti Gallery.
In 1934 his one-man show at the Jandolo gallery in Rome was very successful, it was extended and was visited by King Vittorio Emanuele III who congratulated him.
He briefly opens a studio in via Margutta in Rome and works for the gallery owner Jandolo; after the stop in Rome he travels a lot, he stops in Venice, he still visits the regions of northern Africa for a long time.
In December 1937 he was at the Vitelli Gallery in Genoa with a personal exhibition of 46 oils and 18 drawings. In 1938 he participated with two works in the IX Sindacale of Bergamo, and in the Milanese one.
Numerous his experiences in the following years: II Exhibition of Colonial Art, Naples, 1934; III Quadrennial of Rome, 1939; trade union X in Milan; San Remo Prize, 1939; Livorno Prize, 1939; she receives the medal for the portrait at the XXII Venice Biennale, 1940; XI Mayor of Bergamo, 1941; III Exhibition of the National Union in Milan, 1941; XXIII Venice Biennale where he was rewarded with the purchase of the painting Caporale under license, destined for the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, 1942; I Verona Prize, 1942; Bergamo Prize, 1939-42.
In 1945 he was commissioned by the National Liberation Committee to set up the C.L.N. of the group of painters and sculptors of the Municipality of Bergamo and was appointed "delegate of the arts". He actively participates in the promotion and organization of the Bergamo Prize and numerous Bergamo artistic events.
Stefano Cairola inserts it in the important volume "Italian art of our time".
From 1946 to 1949 he was part of the examination jury for the students of the School of Painting of the Carrara Academy.
In the early fifties his interest turned to the circus environment, then to the land of Spain; in Milan he opens a studio in via Manin; he was very active in the rebirth of the Circolo Artistico Bergamasco and in 1953 he was elected vice president; in 1956 he took part in the 9th Suzzara Prize and was awarded.
The 1960s were characterized by his collaboration with the Galleria della Torre in Bergamo, where he set up numerous exhibitions dedicated to deceased Bergamo artists. In the same gallery he took part in two group exhibitions "of six painters from Bergamo", in 1964 and 1967. In 1966 he exhibited and was on the organizing committee of the "Mostra della Resistenza" in Milan.
In the seventies he assiduously frequented the Lorenzelli Gallery; Bruno Lorenzelli, with whom an excellent friendship had already existed for some time, in 1974 organized a personal exhibition for him in a Parisian gallery.
Then in 1977 he began collaborating with the gallery owner Bertulezzi who inaugurated the "Galleria d'Arte Bergamo" with a group of orientalist works; solo shows by him in 1979 and 1981 follow in this gallery. In October 1980 at "La Garitta", the gallery of the Circolo Artistico Bergamasco, one of his pastel works and drawings was set up.
After his disappearance, his wife organizes a commemorative exhibition at the Bergamo Art Gallery; in October 1990, a vast anthological exhibition of his work was set up at the Permanente in Milan, with the publication of the first monograph dedicated to him.

Museums: Rome, Gallery of Modern Art; Bergamo, Conventino Museum

Bibliography: Seda Universal Encyclopedia of Modern Painting, Milan, Seda, 1969; AM Comanducci, Illustrated Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Italian Painters, Draftsmen and Engravers, Milan, Luigi Patuzzi Editore, 1972; Ernesto Quarti Marchiò, 1907-1982, edited by F. Rea, Bergamo, Grafica e Arte, 1990; Masters and Artists, 200 years of the Carrara Academy, edited by F. Rossi, Milan, Skira Editore, 1996; The painting of Ernesto Quarti Marchiò, 1907-1982, Degree Thesis by P. S. Ubiali, Supervisor: Prof. A. Negri, A. A. 1999/2000.

The painting is in good condition

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