BIOGRAPHY

Guglielmo ‘Willy’ Tavernaro (1909-1989) prolific abstract painter active between the early ’50s through to his death in 1989.

Guglielmo ‘Willy’ Tavernaro concentrated on abstract art from the very beginning of his career. As a prolific painter, he created his own pictorial vocabulary composed of geometric forms.

Inspired by avant-garde movements from the first half of the 20th century, notably Suprematism and Cubism, many of Tavernaro’s paintings explore horizontal and vertical fields, recalling Neo-Plasticistic pieces of the Dutch De Stijl group. Perhaps the most characteristic element in his paintings is their bold composition and structure; they possess an architectural quality which confers a striking unity to his body of works.

Tavernaro employed a wide range of media: from oils, pencil, and collage elements with letters, to newspaper clippings and fragments of coloured paper. These vernacular elements, in particular, place his work within a daily context and evoke – at the same time – reminiscence of the past.

Exploring form and colour was paramount for Guglielmo ‘Willy’ Tavernaro. Using various colour palettes, from earthy greys and greens to shining reds, blues and yellows, he created a series of paintings that remain both modern and dynamic to this date.