Domenico Cantatore was born in Ruvo di Puglia, near Bari, on 16th March, 1906, into a very poor family whose economic problems were such that he was forced to work as a boy as a “room painter”, or better, decorator.
He was very young when he emigrated to Rome where he spent a period of self-taught, solitary formation. He moved to Milan in 1924.
The faces of the people from the South painted by Cantatore are like gnarled tree trunks without emphasis; in the faces full of wrinkles are written stories, suffering of life and strong, weather resistant bonds.
In order to realise his dream of becoming an artist, Cantatore designed clothes for a tailor and thanks to his mastery of language, became an art critic.
He began in 1929 to exhibit his works of art depicting landscapes, figures and still life and southern folk in a Gallery in Milan.
In 1932, he moved to Paris and got to know Modigliani, Picasso and Matisse who became one of Cantatore’s ideal masters.
It was in this period and his encounter with Matisse, that his palette became more openand bright. Back in Italy, he participated in the Venice Biennale, where entire walls were dedicated tohim and also at the Quadrenniale in Rome, where he was given an entire room for his exhibition.
Cantotore never became tied to ideological movements and groups and was always figurative. When he moved to Milan, he met Salvatore Quasimodo, Alfonso Gatto, Leonardo Sinisgalli and Raffaele Carrieri.
In 1940, he was appointed Professor of figure drawing at the Art School in Milan and then, as Professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in 1950.
In 1941, he received the Premio Umberto award in Milan and in 1959, the Maggio di Bari award.
In 1963, he illustrated by etchings, nine poems in the book “Man of My Time” by Quasimodo as well as twenty sonnets of Petrarch’s “Canzoniere”.
In 1967, the poet Raffaele Carrieri asked him to illustrate his Volume: “Aphrodite hen” with lithographs and in the same year he exhibited at the Museo Civico di Monza, Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in 1983, and Montecatini in 1981, where he won the Life of Artists’ award.
He died suddenly in Paris on May 22, 1998 while on holiday with his wife.
