Ugo Martiradonna is an Italian painter who resides in Bari, Italy. He began exploring abstract drawings in the 1960s. In the 1970s, he was one of the leaders of the artistic movement called Nuova Figurazione, where he employed realistic and expressive forms on social issues. In this time period, Martiradonna illustrated books Bevete Puglia and La Uecchinera. In the 1980s and 1990s, he developed a new form of representing reality whereby he experimented with new aesthetic techniques while maintaining the moral value of the work. In the 2000s, his work was greatly influenced by the impact of mafia, terrorism, social protest, war, hijackings, massacres and immigrant shipwrecks. Since 2010, he continues to explore the human body, mainly female, in evocative and symbolic ways.
Martiradonna was born on January 26, 1935. His early childhood was impacted by World War II. He dropped out of school at the age of 12. He grew up watching his father in his glass decoration studio and as a young boy helped him create complex stained glass work. Though this experience did not inspire his art directly, it did influence his drive to work uninterruptedly, aiming to strive for perfection. After the war ended, he was inspired by American black and white cinema and began to draw portraits of the actors using charcoal. Later in life, Martiradonna was the beneficiary of a law that stated that anyone with talent could become a teacher. The Art High School of Bari awarded him a teaching degree in 1969, allowing him to turn his passion into a profession.
Martiradonna continues to paint every day. He is often asked why he does not seek to sell his work and he always replies, “Selling is not important to me… I paint to overcome myself.” In 2018, he agreed to digitally archive his work over the past 50 years to leave a legacy for his grandson.
