Tasso Marchini (22 June 1907,

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

– 19 October 1936, Arco di Trento) was a

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

painter of mixed parentage, who spent most of his short life in Romania.

Biography

He was born in

, capital of the

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Principality was ruled by the Obrenović dynast ...

, to an Italian father and Serbian mother and became separated from his parents during the chaos of World War I. His movements over the next few years are unclear, but in the early 1920s, he appears in Transylvania, where he began his artistic studies at the School of Fine Arts in Cluj.Biographical notes
from the Muzeu Virtual @ Pontes. Being poor, he could not afford to pay the models' fees, so he practiced by making portraits of his fellow students and teachers. It was said by his friend,

Aurel Ciupe Aurel Ciupe (May 16, 1900 – July 18, 1988), was a Romanian painter, educator, and museum director. He authored numerous portraits, and landscape paintings, and worked within the Fauvism movement. Ciupe was a professor at the Institute of Fine A ...

, that Marchini would wipe his canvases clean to reuse them until they were almost too thin to use. Occasionally, his colleagues would intervene to save an especially good one. The paintings that survived would later form the basis for his early exhibitions. Between 1926 and 1928, he worked at the artists' colony in

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; ; ; ) is a Municipiu, city along the Săsar, Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramureș, a subregion of Transylvania. It is situated about from Buchare ...

. In 1929, he developed the first symptoms of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. From 1930 to 1932, despite the strains caused by his poor health, he and Traian Bilțiu-Dăncuș (1899–1975) worked on decorating the Church of the Assumption in

Sighetu Marmației Sighetu Marmației (, also spelled ''Sighetul Marmației''; or ''Siget''; , ; ; ), until 1960 Sighet, is a city in Maramureș County near the Iza River, in northwestern Romania. Geography Sighetu Marmației is situated along the Tisa river o ...

. These paintings were damaged during World War II and restored in 2008. Following that, he assisted the brothers Eugen and , who were decorating a church in

Mănăstireni Mănăstireni (; ) is a commune in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania, located on the Căpuș River. It is composed of six villages: Ardeova (''Erdőfalva''), Bedeciu (''Bedecs''), Bica (''Kalotabikal''), Dretea (''Deréte''), Mănăstireni and M� ...

. In 1934, he finally completed his studies at the School of Fine Arts and moved to

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

. The following year, he and his wife went to

Balchik Balchik ( ; , ) is a List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, town and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the Southern Dobruja area of northeastern Bulgaria. It is in Dobrich Province, 35 km southeast of Dobrich and 42 km no ...

, a resort city on the Black Sea, in an effort to improve his health. Later that year, however, he had to be hospitalized and entered the sanitarium in Arco di Trento. He died there in 1936.

Selected paintings

File:Tasso Marchini - Peisaj la Sighet.jpg, Landscape in Sighet File:Tasso Marchini - Natura moarta cu lulea.jpg, Still-life with Pipe File:Tasso Marchini - Periferie.jpg, Suburbs File:Tasso Marchini - Dejunul.jpg, Breakfast

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marchini, Tasso 1907 births 1936 deaths Romanian portrait painters Romanian landscape painters Romanian still life painters Artists from Belgrade 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis 20th-century Romanian painters Tuberculosis deaths in Italy Romanian people of Italian descent Romanian people of Serbian descent Infectious disease deaths in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links