Valeria Vecchia
 

Valeria Vecchia

   

Valeria Vecchia’s family was from Piacenza but she was born on 16 February 1913 in Naples, where her parents were temporarily living because her father Ubaldo, who was an engineer, worked there. In 1926 she moved to Rome with her family and then she permanently resided there. She attended art school and graduated from the Academy of Art in 1935; her engraving teacher at the Academy was Gustavo Rodella.

She very soon devoted herself to engraving, which she was particularly fond of, measuring herself against various techniques: at first she mainly used etching and dry-point, then she also made use of lithography, soft paint and two- or three-colour aquatint, often combining different methods in the same work.

 During her activity she made more than eight hundred engravings, the recurring themes of which are landscapes and views, still lives, female figures, holy and allegorical compositions.


The artist evoked reality grasping its innermost notes, she often merged real and imaginary elements, images from the subconscious mind, from memory and from dreams. At the same time Valeria Vecchia also applied herself to oil painting and, especially in the field of holy art, to wall painting, mosaic, stained-glass windows and goldsmith’s art. She devoted herself to teaching and between 1940 and 1945 she worked for the Soprintendenza ai Monumenti di Roma e del Lazio.
 

                                                                                              Since the beginning of her activity Valeria Vecchia was invited to the most important Italian exhibitions and she participated in several editions of the Quadrennial Exhibition in Rome, the Biennial Exhibition in Milan, the Quadrennial Exhibiton in Turin, the Biennial Holy Art Exhibiton, the seven editions of the Biennial Engraving Exhibition in Venice; at various times she exhibited her works at the International Biennial Art Exhibition in Venice and at other international exhibitions.                                 
 

Among her one-man exhibitions we can mention two very important ones: the one held at the Calcografia Nazionale in 1954 and the one held at Palazzo Braschi in Rome in 1974.

She was a member of the Associazione Incisori Veneti (A.I.V.), joining the exhibitions set up by this association in Italy and abroad.


She was awarded important awards and her works belong to galleries and museums; she is featured in the Catalogo Bolaffi della Grafica Italiana from 1969 to 1977.

Valeria Vecchia died in Acilia (Rome) on 13 March 1986.
 

Bibliografia essenziale
                                                                                                                                                Da Vią G.- Giacomozzi C., Valeria Vecchia. Incisioni e litografie dal 1934 al 1978, Cittadella di Padova 1980.           

Bianchi S., Profilo di un’artista: Valeria Vecchia, in «Grafica d’arte», no. 39, July-September 1999, pp. 33-35.

   

 

       


 

 


 

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