Franz Borghese was born in Rome 21st June, 1941. In 1957, he passed the entry exam for admission to the Art School in Via Ripetta.
In 1961, he worked in a basement studio in Via Bertolini in Rome and in 1962, moved to Prati where he spent the following 10 years in a rented studio in Via Pompeo Magno.
In 1964, he founded the group and its homonymous magazine “The Horseshoe”. In 1967, together with Daniela Romano, Giorgio Fasan and others, he made a film on experimental painting, called “The Big Apple” (screened in Rome), and which was about consumer society.
In Rome, 1968, he presented his first solo exhibition in the gallery opened by himself in Via Margutta and then, exhibited in a gallery in Chicago. In the same year, one of his paintings was exhibited at the “6th Review of Fine Arts of Rome and Lazio” at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
In 1969, his painting leaned towards satire and sarcasm. In Rome, 1970, he presented a set of paintings based on the theme “Process the bourgeoisie” and it was in the same year that he first exhibited in Milan and that Dino Buzzanti devoted an article to him in the National newspaper “Il Corriere della Sera”.
In 1972, he painted “The Chiechi, which is devoted to militarism. In 1973, he created his first etchings.
It was in 1970 that he got to know Salvatore Fiume and also the year in which he painted the large sized “Condemnation of Christ” for the Vatican Museums. The year after, his works were exhibited at Monaco of Bavaria’s “O+G+Grafic”.
In 1976, he created about one hundred drawings on militarism that were collected in the book “Long live the war” and in the same year he held a solo exhibition at Bedford House in New York, followed by the Euro-American Art Centre in Caracas and the gallery of Seiquer in Madrid in 1977.
In 1977, he met his wife, Rassana Zanpetti, and a year later, he held another solo exhibition at the Zentrum gallery in Vienna and a further one at the Forni gallery in Amsterdam.
In 1980, he presented his new sculptures: “An Officer and a Lady”, “The circle”, “The Photograph”, “The Engineer’s Family” and in 1981, he completed a group of works based on the theme of “The Duel”.
In 1982, he met Mino Maccari and in 1986, he held a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo. In 1987, he appeared on the cover of the February issue of the magazine “Arte” and in 1989, he paid homage to the French Revolution with a presentation of twenty watercolours titled “History of the Grande Armee” for the Bologna Art Fair. In 1991, he took part in the FIAT company branch in Pescara’s presentation of a retrospective exhibition that included works related to the cycle of “Inventions and discoveries”. In 1994, he presented his works of “Waterloo imaginary battle” at the Bologna Art Fair. A year after, “Italarte” published a collection of autobiographical writings titled “The history of a vocation.”
In 1996, he painted “The Discreet Charm” as well as producing his first studies of the series “The Flying Machines”.
In 1997, he began his studies for the etchings of the series “All men of the master plan”, which were to conclude in 1999.
In 2002 he held a solo exhibition at the Galerie Mark Peet Visser Heusden (NC) and in 2003 another solo exhibition called “Red Borghese” in the White Hall of the Palace of Caserta.
He died on 16th December 2005, in his personal study in Rome.
