Since 1960, Domenico Viggiano has lived and worked in Florence. There, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts. He attended the sculpture courses held by Giulio Pierucci and Antonio Berti, (with whom he worked together closely until 1969) and the courses of two engraving masters, Rodolfo Margheri (who continued teaching at the Academy until 1967, the year of his death) and Giuseppe Viviani (chair from 1956 to 1965). Viggiano graduated in 1964 and began teaching engraving techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce in 1967, and later in Carrara. In 1972, he became a full professor of engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. That same year Viggiano was elected Deputy Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, a position he held until 1983 when he became its head. He is a member of the Academy of the Arts of Drawing, president of the artists’ section of the Compagnia del Paiolo, and president of the Gruppo Donatello. From 1983 to 1995, he was a graphics consultant at Il Bisonte International School of Graphic Art as well as president of the Fondazione Antonio Berti per la Giovane Scultura Italiana. A decidedly eclectic and multifaceted figure, Viggiano has alternated his teaching with a particular artistic journey developed against a backdrop of manifold experiences that characterize the highest levels of the Florentine cultural scene. A master of engraving and sculpture, he has always tackled the most diverse disciplines such as, for example, painting as well as photography (Artist Studies, Homage to Antonio Berti, Oscar Gallo, Giannetto Mannucci, Giulio Pierucci, photographs by Domenico Viggiano, Villa Renatico Martini, Monsummano Terme, 6-28 September 1997) and watercolor (his last exhibition: R. Maestro and D. Viggiano, Galleria Gruppo Donatello, Florence, 29 November 2000). Domenico Viggiano's sculptural and painting works have been seen in numerous exhibitions: IX Quadriennale d'Arte, Rome, 1965; First National Engraving Competition, Piombino, 1967; International Graphics Exhibition, Vignola, 1968; International Engraving Biennial, Taranto, 1970; Florence City Council scholarship for young artists, Florence, 1971; III International Biennial of Art Graphics, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1972; Graphics solo exhibition, Galleria La Vernice, Bari, 1973; III Italian Engraving Biennial, Padua, 1979; Ibla Mediterraneo International Award for painting and graphics, Modica, 1979; Group show of Painting by Contemporary Masters, Galleria Vittoria, Florence, 1982; exhibition of the engravings: Dante in the Vatican. The Divine Comedy in the interpretation of contemporary artists, Rome, Vatican City, 1985; Art events, Marina di Carrara, 1986; Fifth Engraving Triennial, Milan, 1987; Materia e Forma (Material and Form), Villa di Poggio Reale, Municipality of Rufina (Florence), 1987; Small bronzes and medals, Academy of Drawing Arts, Florence, 1989; XXVII Gruppo Donatello, Florence, 1989. From 1999 to 2013, Viggiano was president of the exhibition committee for the city of Monsummano Terme (PT) International Biennial Printmaking Prize. On 17 March 2011, he inaugurated the bronze sculpture dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. Entitled Costruzione di un pensiero (Construction of a Thought), it was placed in a new square in Monsummano Terme, whose name also recalls the historical event.
Interior (Oscar Gallo’s Studio), One of Domenico Viggiano’s favorite sculptors has undoubtedly been Oscar Gallo. The friendship and mutual respect binding the two artists was formed at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. A full professor of sculpture since 1963, Gallo asked in 1979 that Viggiano replace him. With the Venetian sculptor’s death on 13 November 1994, Viggiano relived through the lens of his camera all the years of his visits to this private studio that, according to Gallo’s daughter Anna Gallo Martucci, was his favorite place. Viggiano's sensibility as a sculptor and a photographer penetrates Gallo's physical, inner space, capturing the intimate essence of a life's work. With a photograph, he has frozen Gallo’s dearest and most personal objects. Through the photographic image and its effective adherence to reality, they emerge as indelible and unforgettable traces of the sculptor's presence in Viggiano’s memory. Here, the study appears as a space unveiled and rediscovered, with each plaster, bronze, or wax sculpture finding its own place amid the furniture, work tools, paintings, and books. Each object is accompanied by a story and a memory linked to this space in which Oscar Gallo lived for over sixty years.
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Anna (Giulio Pierucci’s Studio) Between 1960 and 1964, Domenico Viggiano often visited Giulio Pierucci's studio, becoming one of his students. This somewhat reserved sculptor from Prato had begun painting with the master Guido Dolci. Later, in the 1930s, Pierucci became involved in a specific cultural world that developed in Prato; its core was made up of young artists and writers. From 1940 to 1969, he worked closely with the sculptor Antonio Berti, while also teaching at Florence’s Academy of Fine Arts. Viggiano’s early training must be set in a context that, in addition to Pierucci's teaching, also incorporates the human experience of an artist who frequently seemed isolated and burdened by difficulties.
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The Boxer (Giulio Pierucci’s Studio), The Boxer returns to Giulio Pierucci's portrait gallery series. Once again, the sculptor has used color to emphasize specific connotations of the subject even if, in this case, the figure’s extremely strong features, more similar to a prehistoric hominid, contrast with the grace and modernity found in Anna. The microcosm populated by this crowd of characters crammed on the shelves and tables is coupled with the boxer’s hieratic character, watching over the entrance to the studio like a guardian.
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Interior with Shadow, In the 1960s, Domenico Viggiano studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where he took Rodolfo Margheri’s and Giuseppe Viviani’s engraving courses, with Margheri’s lessons being crucial for the artist. Despite working in an academic milieu, Margheri was open to the most diverse international artistic experiences, from Cézanne to Wols, beginning in the post-war period, in an ongoing effort to modernize his own artistic language. Since 1960, Margheri had managed the print shop at Il Bisonte. There, he made the techniques of this ancient craft available to notable contemporary figures, creating one of the most dynamic places for research and experimentation in those years. The relationship between the Academy and Il Bisonte grew out of the constant exchanges that lasted for many years. Viggiano was also became involved directly upon his 1983 appointment as graphics consultant at Il Bisonte International School.
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The Big Shadow, From the late 1970s, Domenico Viggiano made this etching that shows clear compositional similarities to his 1974 work, Interior with Shadow. There is a careful juxtaposition among the whites, blacks, and grays in both works that dominates. Through an edgy use of marks and of mordanting, the artist experimented with a dynamic structure in which the abstraction of forms prevails. Continually searching for his own language, Viggiano seems to now focus on light. The expert eye of an artist, who is also a sculptor and photographer, has succeeded in capturing and clearly establishing the luminous refractions and the play of shadow and half-light to create a graphic intricacy in which a three-dimensional space is still perceived.
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Lovers An engraving teacher for over forty years, Domenico Viggiano donated this splendid etching from his early period to the Renatico collection. Dated 1964, the work is undeniably modern, showing an articulated, complex, and original composition, constructed by an elaborate "universe of marks" made by the artist constantly searching for a message that reflects his own thoughts. Viggiano’s Lovers are a recurring theme in his art. They originate from an artistic process combined with variants in which the figures are merged into geometrically harmonious arrangements that exhibit an instantly recognizable individuality.
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