Hugo Daini
Hugo Daini, Italian sculptor who between 1931 and 1935 attended art courses at the School of Sacred Art of the Oratory of Saint Peter in Rome, while working as an assistant with the sculptors Tamagnini and Lorenzo Ferri. Parallel to these activities, he took courses on techniques of bronze and art in sculpture, and in 1939 he decided to start formal studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, which he would be forced to interrupt to perform compulsory military service and serve for several years as a paratrooper in the Italian Army in World War II. After the end of the War, he collaborated with the sculptor Bengntas in the execution of a statue of General Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, and resumed his studies at the Academy where he obtained the title of sculptor in July 1946. In 1947 the Ministry of National Education of Rome grants him a scholarship and exhibits for the first time at the Il Cortile Gallery in that same city. The following year he was awarded and awarded a scholarship again, this time by the Italian National Olympic Committee as a result of the presentation of the "Mostra nazionale ispirata allo sport" (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome), and represents Italy, together with Greco and Mazzacurati, at the "Sport in Art Exhibition" held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where he won a bronze medal. He worked as a teacher at the Artistic Lyceum attached to the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome (1947-1948) and collaborated with the sculptor Ferri in the making of a monumental manger, five of whose figures are part of the manger that the Vatican installed in the Plaza of San Pedro in the Christmas season. In 1949 he arrived in Venezuela, and from that date until his death he contributed his artistic work to our country.
Daini participated in numerous national and international exhibitions such as the "First Exhibition of the Artistic Army" (International Artistic Association of Rome, 1948), the XI and XXI Official Hall (1950 and 1960), the "Mobil Painting and Sculpture Contest of Venezuela " (Ateneo de Caracas, 1965), the "APEV Exhibition" (Maracay Museum of Art, 1969) and the "Sculpture Exhibition" (Maison Bernard, Caracas, 1975). He also has to his credit, apart from several monuments to Venezuelan heroes, four equestrian statues of Simón Bolívar distributed in the Venezuelan towns of Turén (Edo. Portuguesa), Colón (Edo. Táchira), Píritu (Edo. Portuguesa) and Barinas; one in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), and another in Brussels. Among his most significant works are the statues on the façade of the White Palace (1955), a series of statues, bas-reliefs and fountains for Paseo Los Próceres (1957), the travertine marble relief for the façade of Casa Italia (1958), the Statue of Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda in the Plaza Miranda de Los Dos Caminos (1968) and the Monument to the First Republic in the National Pantheon (1974), all located in Caracas. Also noteworthy are the equestrian statue of General Rafael Urdaneta in Maracaibo (1970), the Monument to the Venezuelan soldier in the Campo de Carabobo in Valencia, Edo. Carabobo (1971) and the Monument to the Liberator Simón Bolívar for Belgrave Square in London (1973).
Daini also made sculptures in small format, especially in bronze, with a marked expressionist tendency. In these pieces, of great originality, you could appreciate the personality and the particular style that he gave to his work. His work is represented in private collections both in Venezuela and abroad. The National Art Gallery included him in the exhibition "Three Expressions in Sculpture" held in 1985.
He has been awarded the following award: 1948, Italian National Olympic Committee Award, "Mostra nazionale ispirata allo sport", National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome / Bronze Medal, "Sport in Art Exhibition", Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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