Giglio Dante came to Boston from Rome in 1921. His father, a respected muralist, trained him in the classical techniques of oil-tempera and fresco. Considered a teenage prodigy, Dante started painting portraits and murals at a young age.[3] In the mid-1930s when working for the
W.P.A., he was commissioned to paint two murals, depicting working Italian immigrants, at the Michelangelo School located on
Charter Street in Boston. The murals were not without controversy as some residents considered the depiction of Italians as unhappy laborers. Many of his early paintings show the influence of
Rouault[4] and
Picasso. It was at this time he broke with his father in his portrait work and the traditions of a classical painter and became and an active member in the
Boston Expressionists Movement.[5][2]
The
Sgraffito[6] technique with semi-abstract symbolism was widely used by Dante in the 1930s and 40s. He exhibited at the famous
Boris Mirski Gallery and taught classes at the Mirski school of Art. He was also part of the dramatic
Abstract Expressionist Movement[7] in New York during the mid 1940s and 50s. He contributed to the
Provincetown art colony[8][9][10] during this period and was one of two founders of Studio Five, a collective artist studio, with sculptor Kenneth Campbell.[11]
Dante showed his work in Boston and New York City during the 1940s and moved permanently to New York in the 1950s.[12][13] He became part of the
Betty Parson Gallery for 10 years and sold with the likes of
Mark Rothko,
Hans Hofmann, and
Barnett Newman. He was one of the first artists to move into the
Westbeth Artists Community in 1970 where he exhibited in their major shows. It was during this period he started with the abstract sculpture technique of
Assemblage.[14]
He started dividing his time during the mid 1970s between
Westbeth NYC and East Hampton, NY. He finally moved permanently to East Hampton in 1981.
Dante continued painting and in 1986 he won Best in Show at Guild Hall's Annual Artist Members Exhibition for his mixed media work of “Portrait of Contessa V.”[15][16][17]
Giglio Dante died at age 92 on December 12, 2006. He is buried along with his wife in the Green River Cemetery of Long Island NY.
Solo exhibitions
1945 Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York, New York
1946, 1948, 1953 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, New York
1944, 1946, 1947 Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1949 Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
1958 Salpeter Gallery, New York, New York
1948,1950, 1956, 1960 Feingarten Art Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
1963 Krasner Gallery, New York, New York
1960, 1963 Lucy Bayne Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1968 Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania
1971, 1972 Westbeth Gallery, New York, New York
1981, 1982 Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
1986 Bologna/Landi Gallery, East Hampton, New York
1987 Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
1987–91, Benton Gallery, Southampton, New York
Collections and Exhibitions (1945–2000)
Museum of Modern Art, Rome, Italy
The Institute of Modern Art, Boston Massachusetts
Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts
Betty Parsons Collection
Thomas B. Hess Collection
Brandeis University
Nathaniel Saltonstall Collection
Albright College Fine Arts Collection
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York
Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, California
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts
Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Museum of Modern Art, Rome Italy
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York