Biography
I'm Umberto Carotenuto, painter, decorator, and engraver deeply tied to his Vesuvian roots.
In 2015 I obtained the II level Academic Diploma in Visual Arts, Decoration, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples with a thesis in cultural anthropology "The memory of the ancient in art" and artistic project in art graphics "Memory and oblivion, suggestions from Pliny's letters "in which the leitmotif is the influence that Pompeii and his art have aroused on artists since their discovery in the eighteenth century.
The strong interest in art graphics has pushed me for some years to deepen these techniques, favoring etching and woodcut, at the laboratories of the Academy of Naples.
In parallel for three years, I attended the Pompeian School of Painting directed by the master Franco Gracco to continue the study of oil painting and ancient techniques such as the fresco from the Roman age and egg tempera.
In my artistic research, the decorative and compositional aspect of the work is fundamental, the relationships between figure and background which translate into studies on chromatic and sign relationships. Also important are the influences of expressionist art and the experiences of Mexican muralism as well as wall painting from the Roman age.
The thousand-year history of the Vesuvian countries and the events related to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD are the themes of my latest works.
