Lugano
Ettore Colla was born in Parma in 1896. A sculptor and painter, he was one of the most significant protagonists of Italian abstractionism after World War II. He began his artistic training in 1913 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma, but was forced to interrupt his studies to enlist in the Bersaglieri Corps during World War I, in which he was seriously wounded.
In 1923 he moved to Paris, where he attended the ateliers of important sculptors such as Antoine Bourdelle, Constantin Brancusi and Henri Laurens, from whom he drew inspiration for his own plastic research. He returned to Italy in 1926 and settled in Rome, where he opened his first studio. In these early years, his sculptural work was influenced by the Novecento movement and the lessons of Arturo Martini. In 1930 he exhibited at the 17th Venice Biennale and, in 1936, was awarded the chair of Ornato Modellato at the Liceo Artistico in Naples.
After World War II, like many Italian artists of his time, Colla approached abstractionism, exploring new forms of expression through painting as well. In 1950 he was among the founders of the Origine group, along with Mario Balocco, Alberto Burri and Giuseppe Capogrossi. The group, which promoted an essential art, devoid of ornament and charged with symbolic values, also gave birth to a gallery, the Galleria Origine in Rome, and its own press organ: the periodical Arti Visive.
His most significant works date from the 1950s, a period in which he developed a sculpture with an abstract-geometric imprint. His works are characterized by the use of salvaged materials, particularly metal sheets, and the construction of figures in space according to an often two-dimensional conception.
In 1955 he participated in the VII Quadriennale in Rome, and in 1957 he held a solo exhibition at Galleria La Tartaruga, also in Rome. In the following years he took part in numerous group exhibitions, both in Italy and abroad. The definitive consecration came in 1964, when he exhibited with a solo room at the XXXII Venice Biennale, receiving wide critical recognition. In 1966 he was among the founders of the magazine “QUI arte contemporanea”, together with Capogrossi, Fontana, Leoncillo, Pasmore and other important artists of the time, published by Editalia. Ettore Colla died in Rome on December 28, 1968, at his home in Viale Parioli.