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Ercole Pignatelli

WeArtFamily Chief Instructor
Ercole Pignatelli was born in Lecce in 1935. As a small child he was fascinated by the delicate embroidery work of his grandmother Maria as well as by the collection of paintings of his grandfather, Ercole, a surgeon. He soon became fascinated by Art, in particular painting, and from his junior school days he began using oil colours: his first painting depicted trees reflected in a pond. At the age of eighteen he left Lecce, first for Rome before then settling in Milano. In 1954 he won the San Fedele Prize, presented by Carlo Carrà. In the same period he met his first gallerist, Carlo Cardazzo, who exhibited his work in Milan and in Venice. These first exhibitions were later followed by two Venice Biennale (1978 and 2011) and dozens of individual and collective exhibitions in Italy and around the world. The Maestro lives and works in Milano.