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1935 Vincenzo Balsamo was born on the 27th of June in Brindisi.
1946 The second of seven children, he loses his father, a sailor, following a work accident. This event plunges the family into economic ruin forcing Balsamo to leave his studies and look for work. He finds employment as an assistant in the artisan studio of the painter and decorator Pietro Acquaviva. Thanks to a number of jobs within local churches, Balsamo quickly gains a strong feel for retouching, he learns to recognise primary and secondary colours and all that is central to the pictorial medium; pigments, coloured ochres etc. This becomes of fundamental importance for his artistic future. Thanks to the maestro Acquaviva he discovers how a painting is born. Thus he begins to compose his first artworks, copying postcards, painting floral subjects, country views and houses.
1949
The economic condition of the family still does not improve. At the age of fourteen, Balsamo goes to live with an aunt in Rome. These are the years of post war reconstruction and building sites are constantly on the lookout for labour. It is easy for Balsamo to find work; but his spirit becomes more and more drawn to painting and thus he continues his artistic development.
1954
On the advice of a friend he enrols at the Scuola d'Arte San Giacomo in Rome where he will study for three consecutive years and where he refines his drawing techniques. Painting has now become an integral part of his life. Balsamo completes portrait studies, landscapes of intense vitality, fascinating still lives, glimpses of the suburbs, etc...
1957
He holds his first public exhibition at the "Circolo Cittadino" in Brindisi dedicated to the maestro Acquaviva.
1959
He opens his first studio on Via Margutta, in Rome. Thanks to his friendship with Michele Calabrese, he begins to get to know the great artists that live in the capital, in particular those who belonged to the Roman School; Mafai, Pirandello, Scipione, Afro, as well as Omiccioli, Sante Monachesi, Guttuso, and many more painters as well as poets and writers like Alfonso Gatto, Sandro Penna and PierPaolo Pasolini.
1960
In October he marries Lidia Tedesco.
1961
He exhibits for the first time in Rome at the "Il Camino" Gallery. He is also invited to curate among others, the creation of the scenography for the film "Cleopatra" in the Cinecittà studios. This cinematographic experience is one he will pursue for a further two years. His first child Roberto, is born.
1962
It is a year of travel in Italy as well as Europe. In the paintings of this time where the landscapes of Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio or Campania become intense and intimate, the pictorial technique, composed of vibrant brush strokes, revels in a play of fantastic tonalities.
1963
The number of exhibitions multiply and the critics begin to discern in this young painter, not merely potential but a certainty for the future. Mannoni, Del Massa, Omiccioli among others write about him, drawn by a painting style that combines a blend of Mediterranean and Nordic culture. During this year he completes a series of works inspired by Jazz music, titled "I musicanti" (The musicians) and exhibited with great success in America. He participates at the X Quadriennale (Tenth Quadrennial) in Rome.
1964
The works of Balsamo enter an expressive more complex phase where the colors of the blue, of the red, of the greens, of the yellow etc., they amalgamate like inspired from a controversial intimacy, at times suffered also. He knows and establish a relationship of collaboration with the "Bürdeke" Gallery of Zurigo. He becomes a father for the second time, his son Francesco is born.
1965
On his frequent travels abroad, on one occasion accompanied by Michele Calabrese, on another by Alfonso Gatto he has the opportunity to visit numerous museums. Among these the "Kunstmuseum" in Zurich and Basel, Switzerland. The works on exhibit by great masters leave an indelible impression on the artist. He exhibits in Zurich at the "Bürdeke" Gallery.
1966
In Saint Paul de Vence he gets to know André Verdet, Arman e César; in Paris he meets Picasso and Hartung and follows Léger at the Gran Palais. These encounters lead him to develop a clear idea of modern art in Europe. He begins to perceive his landscapes under a new light. The coloured backgrounds are deconstructed even further becoming almost abstracted. It is an evolutionary process that only subsequently in the 1970s will see the final transformation of the artist's expressive practice.
1967/68
The landscapes or the still lives become evermore fragmented and the perspective planes interlace, disarticulating the image. Balsamo becomes father for the third time with the birth of Antonella.
1970/73
The artist is now propelled towards a new representational form. He turns his research towards Cubism, attracted by an ever- greater synthesis. The perspective planes, the volumes, the objects intertwine and almost dismember, though without losing homogeneity and colour.
1974
Balsamo becomes more and more focussed on synthesis, shifting his gaze towards an almost geometric Abstraction. He returns to the coloured backgrounds that he had left following his landscapes of the 1960s, these are now without a hint of figuration and are separated by a black mark, which becomes the thread of memory. Daniela, his youngest child is born.
1975
During this year and throughout the next, Balsamo completes the "Decomposizioni" (Decompositions), works that move away from anything he has painted thus far. These works are informal, material, full bodied, harsh in their pictorial expression.
1977
From this time until the end of the decade are years of clear research and experimentation. Balsamo at this time, shifts his focus towards the gestural mark. He completes paintings titled "Nebulose" (Nebulas), which are not envisaged as a celestial world, but a mental and internal journey in search of the just balance between the gestural mark alongside and upon colour.
1978
The artist enters a new expressive phase, complex, difficult and introspective. The works titled "Evocazioni" (Evocations) are completed. Not finding within himself what he was searching for, he paints with the use of an aerograph, strangely deformed, surreal and fantastic figures, symptoms of weariness and doubt. From this moment and for the following ten years, he refuses to exhibit. Today, without abashment, he admits to the thought that afflicted him at that time; that of abandoning painting.
1980/85
He moves to Velletri with his family and he transfers his studio to Via Laurina, a few steps from Piazza del Popolo. From this time he strives to regain his expressive thought, he spends his time at his easel to rediscover a new more congenial world. Past memories come flooding back to him, like memory icons. He paints works linked to a abstract-cubist concept. Two serious family events mark Balsamo's private life. Two brothers are involved in a car accident: one loses his life and the other survives, but only after many months will he return to his former self.
1987
Balsamo, having found the strength to emerge form an unfortunate private time, is propelled towards a decisive shift in his pictorial activity. In these new canvasses, many of large dimensions, the gestural mark has become meticulous, complex and with a strong lyrical and surreal reference. After over thirty years of harsh experimental works and sacrifice, he has finally found his personal concrete and essential world. The exhibitions become again more frequent and the critics rediscover his work in all its strength.
1989
It is the year of the definitive comeback. Firstly in Rome, at the "MR" Gallery, and then at international collectionism level with exhibitions at the Art Fair in Bologna, Hamburg and Nice.
1990
A major exhibition is held at the "Santa Apollonia" Art Centre in Venice. Curated by Vito Apuleto it brings together all the work of these last years under the title of "Sintesia" (Synthesis). His artistic practice enters his most creative period. Balsamo abandons a certain affectedness and dedicates himself primarily to the essence and integration of his concepts.
1991
He separates from his wife and moves to Paris with his new partner. He opens a new studio in the French capital. The glamour of this city overwhelms him passionately. He paints unique works as part of this artistic journey. The solo and group exhibitions increasingly follow in succession.
1992
He spends a few months in Sicily, becoming fascinated with the colours, the light and atmospheric moods of that land.
1994
He spends his time between Italy and Paris. Two important and prestigious solo exhibitions take place in the French capital, the first at "Découvertes" in Porte de Versailles and then at the "Lansberg" Gallery on the Rue de Sein.
1995
He maintains the Parisian studio while moving to Treviso.(Italy) He shows the works from the Paris exhibitions at the "ValenteArteContemporanea" Gallery. It is an important year in the terms of his personal life, with his new partner he becomes a father once more. The passion for painting is nourished by this dawning "light" and the hours spent at the easel seems to never be enough.
1996
He also opens a studio in Verona. An anthological survey exhibition curated by Floriano De Santi begins at the "Forte Spagnolo" in Aquila and will tour to four other public locations in Italy. After the Abruzzi capital it reaches the Centro Internazionale "U. Mastroianni" in Arpino.
1997
After the venues in Rome at the "Accademia d'Egitto" and Ravenna at the "Centro Polivalente", the anthological survey completes its tour at the "Palazzo Ducale" in Mantova.
1998
An important solo exhibition is mounted at the "Fontana Gallery" in Spoleto as part of the Festival of the Two Worlds.
1999
The abstracted backgrounds become even more fragmented. The wedge shapes, representations of an essential memory, illustrate the summary of a journey that had begun over ten years before. He is involved with two major exhibitions outside Italy: the first in the United States in Atlanta at the "San Marco" Gallery and the second in Paris at the "Carousel du Louvre". He leaves his Paris studio, inaugurating a new one in Verona.
2000
Professor Granzotto curates a monograph launched this year. The almost two hundred works reproduced comprise the artist's latest painting cycle. Balsamo senses the maturing of two fundamental and concrete impulses; one leading toward the mental summary of everyday life through a kind of "presences"; the other turning toward a search for an even more essential synthesis, where colour becomes purely monochrome.
2001
Following the exhibitions that kept him occupied firstly in Torino, with the launch of a catalogue curated by the critic Gian Giorgio Massara and with the solo exhibition at the European Parliamentary Palace in Bruxelles; Balsamo again crosses national borders for an important exhibition at "Nagahama Museum", Japan.
2002
Balsamo returns to Italy with a one-man exhibition at the "ValenteArteContemporanea" Gallery where he exhibited seven years previously, and simultaneously he shows in Antologica at the "Chiostri di S. Caterina" with a catalogue curated by Marisa Vescovo. The year 2002 is possibly also a year of change; the artist avows the desire to close this last cycle of "Lyrical Abstraction" to dedicate himself to a new expressive phase in his work, a more synthetic approach where the gestural mark becomes the signifier for space-time.
In this year there is also the opening, by Vincenzo Balsamo, of his personal and official website at: www.vincenzobalsamo.com
2003
After the fine art exhibition, done in the month of Fabruary, at Pont-Aven Gallery of Suzzara, Vincenzo Balsamo renunces at the exhibitions for devote entirely to the job. Going on, from the previous year, the search toward a new abstraction. He opens a new studio at Corchiano, a small city situated on the nice viterbesi hills.
The 2003 is also an year of important acknowledgment. He has nominated Artist of the Year by:
"World Art Celebrities Journal and Humanities Committee - SPECIAL EDITION INTERNATIONAL 2003 YEARBOOK"
"The Readers of the World Art Celebrities Journal - The International Center For The Study Of Progressive Neo Cubism"
Balsamo, besides, has selected by Richard Wheeler, a student of Kent’ University (Canterbury), for an important Contemporary Art Project. Project finished with a fine interactive CD by the title: "The interactive gallery of Vincenzo Balsamo's work".
The year is close with 2 exhibitions in contemporary at Viterbo; one at Miralli Gallery, with the works on paper, other at Chigi Palace with the works on canvas. For this event come also edited, by the Critic Ernesto d'Orsi, a catalog, in Limited Edition, with into an engraving coloured by Balsamo.
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