Giampaolo Talani

Biography

Giampaolo Talani was born in San Vincenzo (Livorno) in 1955. He has always lived and worked in San Vincenzo. He attended the Art School and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where he was a pupil of Goffredo Trovarelli.

Giampaolo Talani was a Tuscan painter and sculptor of absolute importance, with a very strong bond with Florence, where he studied and took his first steps as an artist.

He developed a profound artistic preparation and curiosity led him to cultivate traditional genres of painting and to experiment with other techniques including engraving and fresco painting of which he was – among his contemporaries – one of the few profound connoisseurs.

In the unique works and serigraphs of Giampaolo Talani, the sea is the absolute engine of the narrative. The protagonists of his paintings are often represented in the act of leaving: with a suitcase in their hand, they cross beaches on fire from the heat of the day or illuminated by the light of the moon. The wind is a constant companion of the characters, ruffling their hair and changing their courses. The life that teems on the sea is the parable through which Talani recounts human existence, which the artist from San Vincenzo sees as a journey with an unattainable destination, always subject to the whims of fate.

In his activity as a sculptor, Talani has modeled equally restless figures, perpetually on the move: the sculptures are sailors or departing, attracted by the journey and unable to stop even for a moment in the same place. Among the most significant works in Galp's collection is The Man Who Saves the Sea: the three-metre version of the sculpture is located on the Isola del Giglio and was donated to the inhabitants as a sign of homage to their commitment during the removal of the wreck of the Costa Concordia after the 2015 shipwreck.

Talani's works are present in prestigious collections both in Italy and abroad (his painting is particularly loved in the United States). Numerous personalities from the world of culture have written about him, and among others: Vittorio Sgarbi, Umberto Cecchi, Giovanni Faccenda, Tommaso Paloscia, Nicola Micieli, Riccardo Ferrucci. With "Young graphics", for the first time the most significant engravings of the master, dating back to the 70s and 80s, are collected in a single volume. The new edition of Talani's early etchings is the work of Raffaello Becattini, a Florentine master printer, who wanted to trace new sheets from the old plates, on the occasion of the twenty years of activity of his historic printing house, thus giving the opportunity to also get to know the engraving work by Talani, best known for his paintings and frescoes.

Following the artist's recent death, it has become increasingly difficult to find works bearing the artist's original signature, therefore the autograph production is on sale at increasing prices.