-Guido Gambone and son Bruno Gambone-

Guido Gambone (1909 – 1969) is one of the most important and influential Italian ceramic artist in the mid 20th century- He was born in Montella, Avellino in Italy in 1909 and moved with his parents to Vietri in 1927. He started his career at the local Avallone pottery, continued his training at Manifattura Artistica Ceramica Salernitana before moving to the famous I.C.S. (Industria Ceramica Salernitana). He became artistic director at I.C.S. in 1935. Following, he started his own potteries, La Faenzerella in Vietri and later La Tirrena in Florence. He died at the age of sixty, in 1969. Gambone’s work fused painting, primitivism, tradition, modern artistic movements and became enormously influential. Objects for Sale Artistic Director at I.C.S. I.C.S. used traditional decorative processes, but their approach to design was new. Motifs and colors were updated to the 20th century, whilst the primitive and native feel was kept.The I.C.S. approach probably became the most important influence to Guido’s future ground breaking work. Guido became artistic director at I.C.S. in 1935 and the influence from modern artist such as Picasso, Ponti and Modgliani increased. Founding La Faenzerella pottery In 1939 he moved back to Vietri and began experimenting with thick, glassy glazes- In 1943 he founded the La Faenzerella pottery in the town, together with Andrea D’Arienzo (1911-1995). The development of the company was stalled due to the war, but already in 1947 Guido won the prestigious “Premio Faenza” award. Production expanded and pieces were typically decorated with rough and dense glazes made from a combination of glass and sand. Colors varied from earthy tones to vibrant primaries, softened by the thick glazes. Patterns were varied, but always strong and reminiscent of oil paintings. His pieces had a strong primitive feel, quite typical for the Vietri pottery. Becoming one the most important ceramic artists in Italy In 1950, he moved to Florence permanently and founded the La Tirrena pottery. He worked independently, but other contributed to the pottery’s growing success such as his son Bruno Gambone (born 1936). The pieces he made at La Tirrena were in line with the work made at La Faenzerella, but with a larger variation in forms and glazes. The following years he had his first solo exhibitions and won many important prizes. His work was sold widely in Italy and overseas, where the United States was the most important destination. The La Tirrena pottery was closed in 1967, two years before Guido’s death Guido Gambone Signatures Guido Gambone’s pieces from La Faenzaerella (1939-1950) are marked Gambone with a donkey motif and Italy.. Most of the pieces produced the first few years at La Tirenna (1950-1967) are signed the same way, i.e. Gambone and the donkey motif. His later work is only signed Gambone Italy. ####### Bruno Gambone was born in Vietri sul Mare (Salerno) in 1936. Since boyhood, at the beginning of the 1950s, he dedicated himself to pottery, gaining experience in the Florentine workshop of his father Guido, one of the greatest Italian potters of the 20th century. After working for Andrea d'Arienzo (1958), he began to experiment by working on fabrics and painting on canvas. The artist was to continue the two activities in parallel, going onto present his first solo painting exhibition at Galleria La Strozzina in Palazzo Strozzi in Florence at the end of the 1950s. In the early 1960s he set up in New York where he frequented the likes of Rauschenberg, Nevelson, Stella, Lichtenstein and Warhol. As well as painting and sculpture, he also worked in theatre and cinema. In this decade his work was presented in solo and group exhibitions both in Italy (among others, Galleria Il Chiodo, Palermo, 1966; Galleria del Cenobio, Milan; Mostra internazionale dei giovani, Milan, Turin, 1967; Oggi, Salone Annunciata, Milan, 1968) and abroad (Henry Gallery, Washington, 1964; Galeria Bonino, Rio de Janeiro, 1967; 30 artisti europei, Galleria M, Bochum, 1969). His experimentation with materials, shapes, colours and decorations, increasingly present in his work in the late 1960s, was enriched by the experience he had gained in the 1950s. The “geometry of shape” influenced by the classical education he inherited from his father’s pottery, was replaced by a “perceptive, immaterial geometry” and the “idea” became the focal point of his work. In 1968 he returned to Italy and moved to Milan, contemporary art’s chosen city, where he met and frequented the artists Castellani, Fontana, Scheggi, Bonalumi and Colombo. The following year his father died and Gambone returned to Florence, devoting himself almost entirely to pottery. For twenty years he became involved in a series of exhibitions and took part in national (International Pottery Competition, Faenza, 1971 - '72, '74, '77 – Venice Biennale, 1972; XV Milan Triennale, 1973; Mediterranean Pottery Competition, Grottaglie, 1979, Gallery, Bologna, 1985; Galleria Piaser, Turin, 1987; Galleria My Home, Albenga, 1988; Galleria L'Angololungo, Rome, 1990; Arte Fiera, Bologna, 1991; Galleria Fallani Best, Florence 1996) and international fairs (Munich fair, 1974; Silverberg Gallery, Malmö, 1975; Art Muddy, Tokyo, 1979; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1982; Festival of Italian Design, Houston, 1983; III International Ceramic Festival, Mino, Japan, 1992). At the same time, the artist did not fail to break out into other fields, in particular in the 1970s and 80s: glass, with some partnerships with the glass works in Colle Val D'Elsa and subsequently with laboratories in Venice, creating furnishings such as tables and lamps, and jewellery, designing pieces inspired by imaginary animals, the same ones that populated his pottery. Bruno Gambone is part of the National Pottery Council and is a member of the Geneva Academy. For around a decade he has been the artistic director of the Vietri sul Mare National Pottery Prize. Numbering among his recent exhibitions are Donne Madonne e Sirene (Salerno, 2001), Corno d'Autore (Naples, 2001), Terra e Fuoco (Brussels, 2003), Metamorfosi di terra (Turin, 2007) and Sculture (Galleria Il Ponte, Florence, 2007).