Novello Finotti

Novello Finotti was born in Verona in 1939. He was a student at the Accademia Cignaroli and began exhibiting in 1958, winning a prize at the Exhibition of Sacred Art in Assisi. In 1964 he held a one-man exhibition in New York at the Armory Gallery and In 1966 he was invited to participate with a set of works at the XXXIII International Biennale in Venice. In 1972 he held a one-man show at the Jolas Gallery in Milan. In the same year he took part in the travelling exhibition Scultori Italiani di Oggi (Italian Sculptors of Today), under the artistic direction of Professor Fortunato Bellonzi in Rome, exhibiting his works in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, San Paolo, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, East Berlin and Lugano. He was invited to the National Art Quadriennale in Rome in 1976 and to a travelling exhibition “Il Bronzetto Italiano” (Italian Bronze Sculpture) in Finland, Denmark and Norway. He was in New York again in 1977 with a one-man show at the Jolas Jackson Gallery and in 1984 he was invited to exhibit in a room of his own at the XLI International Art Biennale in Venice. In 1986 he held a retrospective exhibition at the Palazzo Te in Mantova. In 1988-89 he participated with a set sculptures in marble in the extensive travelling exhibition “La Scultura Italiana del XX Secolo” (Italian Sculture in the 20th century) in Japan, (The Museum of Fine Arts in Gifu, Art Museum in Niigata City, The Fukuyama Museum of Art). In 1990 he completed a monument to the poet Biagio Marin in the town of Grado and in 1995 he hosted another one-man exhibition of his works at the Galleria del Credito Valtellinese, at the Refettorio delle Stelline in Milan. Between 1998 and 2001 apart from the one-man show at the Nardin Gallery in New York, he was commissioned to carry out various works including the re-working of the entire façade of the Basilica di S.Giustina in Padua, including the three bronze portals, 18 portraits of his virtual clients inserted in the rear of the central door and the four symbols of the Evangelists in marble, located in the niches of the façade. In 2001 he completed the gilded bronze decoration of the altar of the saint Beato Giovanni XXIII, in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In 2002 he created a large-scale figure in the white marble of Carrara representing Santa Maria Soledad, positioned in one of the external niches of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. From 2002 to 2005 he had one-man shows in Malcesine (Verona), the Galleria Forni in Milan, Sant’Anna di Stazzema (Lucca), and Abbazia di Rosazzo, Manzano (Udine). He lives and divides his time between Sommacampagna (VR) and Pietrasanta (LU).