Carlo Zinelli

Raw Vision

A shell-shocked veteran of WWII, Carlo Zinelli incessantly painted bold, powerful images of figures, animals, weapons and words, while institutionalized in Verona, Italy…

2 Works

Zinelli, the fourth of seven children, was always an introverted child. At the age nine he was separated from his family and sent to work as a farm laborer. Country life made him even more withdrawn. At age fifteen Zinelli moved to Verona to become a butcher’s apprentice, but the transition from the country to the city was quite difficult for him. In Verona he developed an interest in music and painting, and he lived there until the army drafted him in 1936…

Progressing from the earliest miniscule vignettes, to the double-sided narratives incorporating words as prayers, rhymes and songs, to his final black and white works, Carlo was a genius pattern designer. Beyond aesthetics, his paintings seem to be a desperate attempt to communicate in the only way he could, through the rich and imaginative language of his art.