Carmine Benincasa (17 December 1947 – 3 August 2020) was an Italian art critic and

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

professor.

Biography

Benincasa was born in

Eboli Eboli (Neapolitan language, Ebolitano: ) is a town and ''comune'' of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Salerno. Eboli, an agricultural centre, is renowned for its olive oil and dairy products, most notably the famous buffalo mozzarel ...

in the south of Italy. After studying in a religious school he moved to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

to study

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

. He was a professor of art history at the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata The Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata is an academy of fine arts in Macerata, Italy. The Accademia was founded in 1972, located in the Palazzo Buonaccorsi. After the Umbria and Marche earthquake of 1997, it was moved to its current location, ...

, the Academy of Fine Arts in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and Professor of History of Art at the

Faculty of Architecture This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world. An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is a professional school or institution specializing in architectura ...

of the

University La Sapienza The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

in Rome. During this period he met intellectuals like

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...

Marguerite Yourcenar Marguerite Yourcenar (, ; ; born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour; 8 June 190317 December 1987) was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist who became a US citizen in 1947. Winner of the Prix Femina and ...

Bruno Zevi Bruno Zevi (22 January 1918 – 9 January 2000) was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author, and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of "classicizing" modern architecture and postmodernism. Early life Zevi was born and died in ...

and many more. From 1978 to 1982 he was a member of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

Visual Arts Committee and an advisor to the Ministry of Culture and Environment. In 1994 he was briefly accused and incarcerated for defrauding collectors by validating and selling false artworks. The case was subsequently thrown out of court for lack of evidence. Benincasa was eventually cleared of every wrongdoing by the Supreme Court of Italy in 2014. Benincasa published numerous essays, articles and monographs on artists such as

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies, Marquess of Tàpies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalans, Catalan painter, sculptor, and art theorist. Life The son of Josep Tàpies i Mestre and Maria Puig i Guerra, Antoni T ...

Renato Guttuso Aldo Renato Guttuso (26 December 1911 – 18 January 1987) was an Italian painter and politician. He is considered to be among the most important Italian artists of the 20th century and is among the key figures of Italian expressionism. His art i ...

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

Mario Ceroli Mario Ceroli (born 1938) is an Italian sculptor. Biography His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, Mississippi. One of his sculptures is on the Luigi Einaudi campus o ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

Giacomo Balla Giacomo Balla (18 July 1871 – 1 March 1958) was an Italian painter, art teacher and poet best known as a key proponent of Futurism. In his paintings, he depicted light, movement and speed. He was concerned with expressing movement in his works ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

and

Giorgio Morandi Giorgio Morandi (July 20, 1890 – June 18, 1964) was an Italian painter and printmaker widely known for his subtly muted still-life paintings of ceramic vessels, flowers, and landscapes—their quiet, meditative quality reflecting the artist's ...

. He also organized many international exhibitions, including a section of the

in 1982. He died on 3 August 2020, aged 72. Warhol Benincasa

Selected works

* ''Chiesa e storia del cardinale Emmanuel Célestin Suhard e il Concilio Vaticano II'' – Ed. Paoline, 1967 * ''L’interpretazione tra futuro e utopia'' – Ed. Magma, Roma 1973 * ''Sul manierismo – Come dentro uno specchio'', La Nuova Foglio Editrice 1975; 2° ed – Ed. Officina, Roma * ''Babilonia in fiamme – Saggi sull’arte contemporanea'' – Ed. Electa, Milano 1978 * ''Architettura come dis-identità'' – Ed. Dedalo, Bari 1978 * ''L’altra scena – Saggi sul pensiero antico, medioevale e controrinascimentale'' – Ed. Dedalo, 1979 * ''Anabasi – Architettura e arte 1960/1980'' – Ed. Dedalo, Bari 1980 * ''

'' – Ed. 2C, Roma 1981 * ''

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expre ...

- La mia vita'' – Ed. Marsilio, Venezia 1981 * ''

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with ...

– Opere dal 1900 al 1963'' – Ed. Marsilio, Venezia 1982 * ''Verso l’altrove – Fogli eretici sull’arte contemporanea'' – Ed. Electa, Milano 1983 * ''

Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, see ...

'' – Ed. Leader, 1983 * ''

'' – Ed. Marisa del Re Gallery, 1983Paul_Klee
/ref> * ''

Umberto Mastroianni Umberto Mastroianni (September 21, 1910 in Fontana Liri – February 25, 1998 in Marino, Italy), was an Italian abstract sculptor. In 1989, he received the first Praemium Imperiale for sculpture. During World War II, he was in the Italian ...

– Monumenti 1945/1946'' – Ed. Electa, Milano 1986 * ''Il colore e la luce – L’arte contemporanea'' – Ed. Spirali, Milano 1985 * ''

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (; 4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brus ...

– L’universo della pittura'' – Ed. Mondatori, Milano 1989 * ''Clara Halter - Trace'' - Ed. Robert Laffont; First Edition, 1992 * ''Il tutto in frammenti: Arte del XX secolo. Una nuova interpretazione storica'', Politi Editore, Milan, 1994

References

External links

artCellar

openlibrary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benincasa, Carmine 1947 births 2020 deaths People from Eboli Italian art critics Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome Architectural theoreticians Italian architecture writers Italian essayists Italian male non-fiction writers 20th-century Italian philosophers 21st-century Italian philosophers Italian male essayists Italian magazine editors