Emilio Giuseppe Dossena
Encyclopedia
Emilio Giuseppe Dossena (December 10, 1903 – March 23, 1987) was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 who was born in Cavenago d'Adda
Cavenago d'Adda
Cavenago d'Adda is a comune in the Province of Lodi in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 40 km southeast of Milan and about 7 km southeast of Lodi...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and died in Milan, Italy. He was also known simply as Giuseppe Dossena.
He attended the Brera Academy
Brera Academy
The Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, also known as Brera Academy is a public academic institution located in Milan, Italy. It was founded in 1776 by HIM Maria Theresa of Austria.- Overview :...

 (Milan) and the Scuola del Castello (Milan), where he formed strong friendships with Aligi Sassu
Aligi Sassu
Aligi Sassu was an Italian painter and sculptor.-Biography:Aligi Sassu was born in Milan, Lombardy, into a Sardinian-origin family. His father Antonio was one of the founders of the Italian Socialist Party at Sassari in 1894, and had moved to Milan in 1896, where he had married Lina Pedretti in...

, Ernesto Treccani, Guttuso
Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso was an Italian painter.His best-known paintings include Flight from Etna , Crucifixion and La Vucciria . Guttuso also designed for the theatre and did illustrations for books...

, Domenico Cantatore and Umberto Lilloni
Umberto Lilloni
Umberto Lilloni was an Italian painter.-Biography:Lilloni interrupted his studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 1917 when World War I broke out. Alternating landscape with figure painting in the 1920s, he received his first official recognition with the Prince Umberto Prize in 1927...

. At the Scuola del Castello he won a prize for his sculpture works (a trip to Venice), but his attraction toward color made him choose painting as the medium of artistic communication.
Although his tendency toward impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

 was evident from the beginning, the necessity to provide for his family forced him to dedicate only his spare time to this aspect of the arts. He therefore earned his livelihood for many years with the restoration and the decoration of villas and castles, in addition to producing fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es for the local churches. In the residences of Pirelli
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...

, Falck, Borletti, Invernizzi, Necchi, Toscanini, Count Cicogna, Duke Gallarati Scotti, and Count Castelbarco, Emilio Giuseppe Dossena decorated, restored and painted large panels with mythological and archaic themes and battles. His works were also in the Italian Embassy in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, but were destroyed by air raids during WWII.
His passion for artistic expression allowed him to retain his creative integrity, and he became a sought after impressionist, known for the sensibility of his works as much as for the dynamic strokes which characterized them. His first solo exhibit, at the Galleria Gavioli in Milan (1943), was a success with the critics and the public, and all of the paintings were purchased by collectors.

The exhibit at the galleria Hoepli in Milan (1964), and the one at the Palazzo dell’Arredamento, in Desio (1967), also achieved a good response, earning a place on the prestigious Enciclopedia dell’Arte (Edizioni SEDA, Milan).
Until the mid-1950s, Dossena signed his paintings GDossena (for Giuseppe Dossena), but the signature mutated in E.G.Dossena after that period.

After Dossena lost his studio in a fire, he moved in 1968 to Brooklyn, New York, where he worked for the Berger Studio, restoring works by Renoir
Renoir
-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...

, Rembrandt, Picasso and other masters, property of museums and private collections, amongst which stand out the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Playboy Club
Playboy Club
The Playboy Club initially was a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first club opened at 116 E. Walton Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States, on February 29, 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room...

.

In New York, the artist temporarily abandoned his impressionist roots, embracing the neo-expressionism
Neo-expressionism
Neo-expressionism is a style of modern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated the art market until the mid-1980s...

, creating shapes more simplified, almost essential, without any schematism or structural restrictions. The shape is almost snatched from nature, in a continued research to contain and interpret the existential essence and express these new inescapable sensations, which the artist feel away from his country.
The exhibits at the Columbus Citizens Committee (1973) and the Galerie Internationale (1973, 1974) gave unforeseen positive results. Dorothy Hall, art critic of NY Park East magazine, stated: "These are exuberant works in rich, assertive color, dealing with varied subject matter, both abstract and representational. In either case, there's a feeling of nervous energy bursting forth in the artist's treatment of generously flowered fields, butterflies, still lifes and dancing figures …”

Mario Albertazzi, the Il Progresso Italo-Americano
Il Progresso Italo-Americano
Il Progresso Italo-Americano was an Italian-language daily newspaper in the United States, published from 1880 to 1988, when it was shut down due to a union dispute. In 1989, most journalists of Il Progresso reunited to create a new daily, America Oggi...

 art critic, added: "Brilliant colorist, he brings to his canvas the light of nature and the joy of life. His works…are rich in density and at the same time buoyant, restless and gentle as a delicate caress…"

After eight years he returned to Italy, and devoted his time exclusively to painting. He regained his impressionistic tendencies, although with a more aggressive chromatic handling.

Dossena exhibited at the Galleria Treves (Spotorno, 1977), Galleria Il Portichetto ( Stresa, 1978) and the Circolo Ambrosiano Meneghin e Cecca (Milan, 1983). The specialized press covered these events profusely, offering only positive comments. The art critic Mario Portalupi affirmed: “In truth, his painting process is born out of impressions and the subsequent emotions, which transform reality and regulate the chromatic entities on the canvas…”

His friend Enzo Lepore, renowned opera singer, stated: “Dossena…excels for the luminous harmony of the chromatic contrasts and he distinguishes himself for the expressive purity of his vigorous and original style… His paintings are fresh, palpitating, and rich with a vast conception and spirituality, in a frame of radiant and intensive colors…”

Among the many honors he received, in 1985 Dossena was awarded the prestigious Ambrogino d’Oro per l’Arte from the City of Milan and in 1989 a ceramic tile with his signature is placed in the famous Muretto di Alassio
Alassio
Alassio is a town and "comune" of 11.312 inhabitants in the province of Savona situated in the North West of Italy and approximately 80 km from the French border.Alassio is known for its natural beauty and scenic views...

.

Dossena was a member of numerous academies and artistic associations, among them the Accademia Tiberina and the Accademia dei Bronzi. In the last years of his life, the artist, ill and unable to paint, devoted himself to poetry, receiving numerous awards and appearing in a variety of literary anthologies. The exhibit at the Trask Gallery of the National Arts Club
National Arts Club
The National Arts Club is a private club in Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J...

 of New York, organized in 1998 by L’Idea Magazine of Brooklyn in his memory, beat all the participation records and it was the first one for an Italian artist in such an institution.

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