Giuseppe Biasi Da Teulada

Giuseppe Biasi da Teulada was born in Sassari in 1885 into a noble family of Veronese origin. From a very young age he showed a flair for drawing, publishing numerous caricatures in local newspapers such as ‘Burchiello’ and ‘Massinelli’ in the early 20th century. In 1904, he moved to Rome to undertake his studies in Law, but at the same time continued his experience as an illustrator and in 1905 began collaborating with the Roman newspapers ‘La Patria’, ‘L’Italie’ and ‘L’avanti della Domenica’.

He obtained his first recognition in this field in 1907, winning the competition for the illustration of the cover of the ‘Giornalino della Domenica’. In 1908, he obtained a degree in Law, but that was not his path and he dedicated his life completely to artistic research. In fact, the watercoloured drawing Procession in the Barbagia di Tonni, with which he participated in the 1909 Venice Biennale, dates back to the successful year.

His fascination for Sardinia and its traditions are the main subjects of many of his works, such as the works exhibited at the Roman Secession in 1913: Mattino in un villaggio sardo, Melodia Nostalgica and Sardegna Mistica. He also participated in the next Secession in 1914 with Natale and La Sposa. In the same year Giuseppe Biasi from Teulada was among the artists exhibiting at the Venice Biennale and participated with two works La processione di Cristo and Sere di festa a Teulada – Sardegna. The last event in which he was a guest before the outbreak of the Great War was the Third Roman Secession in 1915 in which he exhibited Scenes from Sardinia.

Giuseppe Biasi from Teulada to Milan and Egypt

After Italy’s entry into the war, Giuseppe Biasi da Teulada from Teulada decided to enlist as a volunteer, but suffered a leg injury that would make him limp for the rest of his life. At the end of the conflict he moved to Milan, but his bond with Sardinia was always visceral and in 1917 he organised an exhibition of Sardinian authors in the Lombard city itself, at the Galleria del Caffè Cova, in which his works appeared together with those of Edina Altara (1898-1983), Melkiorre Melis (1889-1982) and Primo Sinopico, pseudonym of Raoul de Chareun (1889-1949). In those years he also collaborated with the Sardinian writer Grazia Deledda by illustrating L’incendio dell’oliveto published in 1918 in ‘La Lettura’.

The following year he produced the sketches for the sets and costumes for Vincenzo Michetti’s drama La Grazia with texts by Grazia Deledda. These works were later exhibited at the Monza Biennale in 1923 and at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1925, for which he was awarded a gold medal.

In 1924, the painter felt the need to undertake a long journey in search of new inspiration and left for Egypt, where he exhibited in 1926 in Alexandria and participated in a group show at the Cairo Salon. Works such as Danza araba (Arab Dance) and Bedouin reflect the thematic and colouristic suggestions that arose in North Africa.

Return to Sardinia and fervent exhibition activity

In 1927, Giuseppe Biasi from Teulada returned to Sardinia and embarked on a journey around the island, embedding the images of his land and its traditions in his memory.

In 1928 and 1930 he took part in two editions of the Venice Biennale, exhibiting two works at both events: La Teletta and Serenità in the first; Ragazze di Osilo and Processione in the second.

In 1928, he also exhibited at the I Biennale d’Arte Sarda in Cagliari and the following year he founded the ‘Famiglia Artistica Sarda’, an association set up with the intention of bringing together all the island’s artists, but which was unfortunately short-lived.

In 1931, he exhibited his oil painting Fasha, a witness to his trip to Egypt, at the First Quadrennial Exhibition in Rome, and in the same year he took part in the Exposition of Colonial Art in Rome, and in 1932 and 1934 in that of Tripoli.

Giuseppe Biasi da Teulada also obtained important public and private commissions, such as the decoration of the Villa of the Counts of Sant’Elia in Viareggio in 1930 and the decoration of the railway station in Tempio Pausania, Sassari, in 1932 in which he painted scenes of Sardinian life.

In the 1930s he also took part in various Fascist Trade Unions: in 1933 in Florence with Afternoon and Morning; in 1937 in Naples with Landscape and Motherhood; in 1941 in Milan with Fishermen’s Girls.

In 1940 he was in Sardinia again to work on cartoons for the mosaic of the Palazzo della Giustizia in Sassari and on drawings for the decoration of the church of Fertilia, also in Sassari. He then moved to Biella for the decoration of the hospital and remained there due to the outbreak of the Second World War, without being able to return to his beloved Sardinia. He died, in fact, a few years later at the end of the conflict. The artist was arrested because he was considered a fascist sympathiser and tragically lost his life in Adorno Micca in 1945, while being transferred with other prisoners.

The deep connection with Sardinia and the secessionist matrix

Sardinia is the great inspiration for Giuseppe Biasi da Teulada’s brushes, both the severe and pastoral one of the mountainous region in the north and the more elegant one of the maritime region in the centre-south. Biasi was particularly fascinated by the Teulada area and therefore added this place to his signature.

He found great interest in depicting the peasants, shepherds and fishermen of his island, in traditional clothes, scenes and festivities. On the contrary, he prefers to leave room for the impulses of his imagination: he uses reality only as a starting point and then transfigures it with his palette and his creative flair through a modern, secessionist stroke, made up of sharp, broken lines and a dark, earthy colour, spread in large, flat backgrounds that give a certain two-dimensionality to the compositions.

His love and strong fascination for his land is also testified by the book Arte Sarda that he published in Milan in 1935 together with Giulio Arata, a fundamental text for studying and understanding the history of Sardinian traditions.

Emanuela Di Vivona