Antonio Rocco (Amalfi, Itália 1880 - São Paulo SP 1944)
Painter and teacher.
He studied painting with Domenico Morelli (1826 - 1901) and Filippo Palizzi (1818 - 1899) at the Instituto di Belle Arti in Naples between 1899 and 1905, when he presented the canvas Os Mineiros [The Miners]. He took part in the Turin Biennial in 1908. He came to Brazil in 1913 and settled in São Paulo. The following year, he received at his studio a visit from Nestor Pestana, director of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, who devoted a laudatory article to him in the July 2, 1914 edition. He held his first solo exhibition in the city at the hall of Count Prates's mansion in 1918, the year in which the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo - Pesp acquired his canvas Os Emigrantes [The Emigrants], ca. 1910. Also in 1918, he founded the Escola Novíssima with Nicolo Petrilli and A. Sironi, offering courses in vocational training and public education for women, and designed the cover of the magazine A Cigarra for its first-anniversary issue. In 1919, he spent six months on the farm of businessman Oscar Souza Pinto in São Carlos do Pinhal, where he painted landscapes, animals and scenes of daily life. He took part in several editions of the Exposição Geral de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro and of the Salão Paulista de Belas Artes. He participated in the group exhibition Grupo Almeida Júnior, organized by Torquato Bassi (1880 - 1967), at the Palácio das Arcadas in São Paulo in 1928. At the invitation of the Italian vice-consul in São Paulo, he took part in the 2nd Provincial Exhibition of Salerno, Italy. He taught several São Paulo artists, among them Colette Pujol (1913 - 1999) and Bernardino de Sousa Pereira (1895 - 1985).
Source: Itaú Cultural
