BRUNO CAPACCI
Italian painter, poet & ceramist   

Bruno Capacci (Venice 1906 - Brussels 1996)

1930's : Paris, metaphysical period

"Les liens" 1933, oil on panel, 72 x 96 cm
Illustrated in "30 tableaux de Capacci" by P. Colinet, M. & G. Picqueray & M. Lecomte, Ed. La Boétie, 1946

"Still life with mask" 1934, oil on panel, 48 x 60 cm

"L'attente" 1932, oil on panel, 57 x 60 cm (sold)
"Le silence était présent au mariage des statues du soir" Bruno Capacci

"Self portrait" 1936, oil on canvas
​Private collection

1940's : Brussels, tribute to Italy and surrealism

"Self portrait"​ 1945, oil on panel

Editions La Boétie, 1946

"Head in profile" 1946, oil on panel

"Commedia dell' arte - Guitar & harlequins" 1940's, oil on panel, 80 x 95 cm

Detail with the artist's signature

"Souvenirs d'Italie" 1947, oil on panel, 98 x 126 cm

Monumental Capacci fresco in italian restaurant "San Francisco", Paris

In 1947 ​André Breton invites Capacci to join the International surrealist exhibition at Galerie Maeght

"La genèse des formes" 1946, exhibited at Galerie Maeght, 1947. 
Collection of the Israël museum, Jerusalem

1950's : builds a house in Florence (1957)

"Capteurs d'images" ​1958, oil on panel, 82 x 84 cm
The artist's view on Piazza San Marco in Venice
"Les capteurs d'images vivent à l'état brut dans certaines contrées décomposées"
(Bruno Capacci "La balustrade du possible", Ed. La Nef d'Argent, 1949)

 1960's : Capacci and his wife live and work in Florence
​They exhibit in the U.S. and make ceramics

Suzanne Van Damme and Bruno Capacci in Italy

"Evening statues (Statue Serali)"​, 1962, oil on panel, 71 x 97 cm

"La Regina" 1967, oil on panel, 89 x 85 cm
"Sur sa tête, un arc-en-ciel d'une coloration toute nouvelle soutenait un cercle classique" Bruno Capacci

"Signs & symbols" 1960's, ceramics, 90 x 60 cm

"Signs" 1960's, ceramics, 60 x 80 cm

Composition of ceramics tiles in the artist's house in Florence

1970's : return to Brussels

"Le cirque" 1970, oil on panel, 65 x 58 cm
"L'impraticabilité de marcher à l'envers impose le retournement du globe" Bruno Capacci

"The lesson - la leçon (Lezione)" 1970, oil on panel, 80 x 100 cm
"Des groupes de mains se reposent, couvertes par des draps de roches" Bruno Capacci

"La maison" 1972, oil on panel, 67 x 48 cm
"Dans une maison remplie de corsets rouges, les anciens coqs fêtent l'utilité des hommes" Bruno Capacci

​"Friendship" 1972, Oil & collage on panel, 66 x 57 cm
"La fragilité mouvante désireuse de suggestions ouvre les fenêtres nocturnes de la solitude" Bruno Capacci

Opening of a Capacci exhibition at Group 2 Gallery, 1991.
Former Prime Minister Leo Tindemans discussing with the artist.

Monography by Group 2 Gallery published in 1991

Bruno Capacci was born in Venice in 1906 but spent his youth in Florence.  In 1930 he settled in Paris where he became a member of "Les Italiens de Paris" together with de Chirico, Severini, Magni, Magnelli and Léonor Fini. In his "metaphysical period" Capacci was influenced by de Chirico and by great masters of the Renaissance such as Uccello, della Francesca and Ghirlandaio.
In "Le Dôme" in Montparnasse he met Belgian artist Suzanne Van Damme, whom he married. The couple became friends with surrealist poets Paul Eluard, Paul Colinet, Marcel Lecomte, Louis Scutenaire and Henri Bauchau and with André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Cocteau, Louise de Vilmorin, Federico Fellini, Jean Paulhan, actor Louis Jouvet and many others.
In 1947 the "pope of surrealism" André Breton invited Capacci and Van Damme to exhibit at the“Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme” at Galerie Maeght in Paris, together with famous artists such as Arp, Bellmer, Brauner, Calder, Duchamp, Ernst, Giacometti, Gorky, Lam, Matta, Miro, Picabia, Man Ray, Tanguy, Tanning and many others.
Capacci's paintings got more and more refined and poetic. He also published surrealistic poems in the book "La balustrade du Possible". His paintings reveal his boundless imagination, a delicate palette and, above all, his extraordinary joy of life. His favorite themes involve lunar characters reminiscent of Klee and Brauner and a fantastic bestiary
When the couple moved to Florence in the 1950’s, they built a beautiful house with a breathtaking view on the surrounding hills of Fiesole. Inspired by his great example Andrea Della Robbia, Capacci started making a series of ceramics which he put everywhere in his house and sold to a wide range of clients, including a large number of wealthy americans. Every year, the couple exhibited in american galleries : Chicago (Marshall Field Gallery 1959), New York (Thibaut Gallery on Madison Avenue 1961), Los Angeles, Baltimore, Dallas (Calhoun Gallery 1961), Denver (Saks Gallery 1969) etc.. Capacci also took a fancy to marble and mosaic and made numerous panels with encrustations inspired by ancient Etruscan and Byzantian art. As an all-around artist and poet, Capacci made porcelain plates which found their way to the Haviland factory in Limoges, Christofle in Paris and the Rosenthal studio in Germany.
In the 1970's Capacci and Van Damme moved back to Brussels where they lived in a house near avenue Louise.  
Group 2 Gallery's opening show in 1990 was a tribute to Suzanne Van Damme, followed by a Capacci solo exhibition in 1991. Capacci passed away in Brussels in 1996, shortly after the opening of a new Van Damme-Capacci exhibition at the Gallery.

 

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