Marcello Grottesi is born in Rome on the 8th March 1939. From an early age he dedicates himself to design as a form of creative discovery and as a haven. 1952 marks his first contact with cinema with the release of Dino Risi’s first film: Vacanza col Gangster (Vacation with a Gangster). In 1960 he travels to Nice where in the ensuing years he resides regularly in Avenue de Provence, and in Cimiez, where he frequents the museum dedicated to Matisse. Nearby, the inherent harmony found in the figures of the Cappella di Saint Paul de Vence lends tacit reference to his own spontaneous way of painting. Back in Rome in 1965, in via del Babuino, he debuts with his first exhibition: Attimi: Forme astratte (Moments: Abstract Forms), which garners a lot of enthusiasm and admiration for his work. There follow many further demonstrations of his style, always searching for form and substance in the language of painting. In 1969 he founds with Paolo Matteucci and Gianfranco Notargiacomo “Il Gruppo di Via Brunetti  Laborotorio ’70” (The Via Brunetti Group Laboratory ’70), to which Gino de Dominicis later joins, livening up the Roma artistic scene with his avant-garde and provocative performances. The nature of these performances are often of a ‘place’, transporting the artistic expression from its traditional home of containment, the art gallery, out into the streets and squares of the city. This can be seen in Pillole Pincus (Pincus Pills): giant contraceptive pills left to roll around Saint Peter’s Square; and Ghigliottina (Guillotine): guillotines transported as stage machinery in Piazza del Popolo: a significant and emblematic evocative piece. In 1969, Palma Bucarelli – curator of the National Gallery of Modern Art – chooses the short film Zoomtrack to project in the gallery space. The group would also go on to be invited to the Sixteenth Biennale in Paris. Towards the end of 1969, however, the prevalence of individual ideas and directions would cause the dissolution of the group. Between 1968 and 1971, Marcello Grottesi produces two feature films as both author and director: Time and Il Gesto (The Gesture), both of which are presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. He is then invited to the Mannheim Festival and in 1972 receives the Silver Ribbon Award for the film Il Gesto from the Serenissima Repubblic of San Marino. He then participates in the Avignon Festival and the Paris Festival. In 1976 he is assigned the Europa Award in Brussels for best feature for a coloured film – Oltre Concerto. Still in 1976 he is in Venice with two exhibitions in Campo Santo Stefano and in Frezzeria. It is while in Venice that he meets Giulio Turcato who requests his joint presence at one of his Venetian shows, and Mario De Luigi who will write enthusiastically: “Marcello! Quel quadro nero, guardalo! È un capolavoro”(“Marcello! Look at that black painting. It’s a masterpiece”), offering him in the meantime a space to paint in the Venice lagoon. In 1977, he meets the director Alberto Lattuada who will edit the text in occasion of the publication of his lithographs. Also in 1977, the councillor for the Department of Culture of Rome, Renato Nicolini, invites Grottesi to present a solo exhibition of his documentary film on the Roman Baroque, screened in Piazza Margana. Among the exhibitions: in 1985 Emozione della Materia (Material Emotions) at the Museo di Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, where he achieves huge international public success. In 1995, in Rome at the Galleria di Palazzo Falconieri, seat of the Hungarian Accademy and situated in Via Giulia, he will register another public success at the painting exhibition Realtà dell’Assenza (The Reality of Absence): English visitors are heard to exclaim “Amazing!”, the Americans are enthusiastic; the Germans cry “Wunderbar!”; while a Spanish priest passes judgement: “that artist has superseded the computer”, and the Japanese express their consensus by photographing the work. In 1993 he is invited to Germany for a series of exhibitions: Echo Welle Geometrie (Echo Wave Geometry), a solo exhibition at Scarpati’s Galerie, Wuppertal; Kunst auf der Talsohle (Art at the Bottom) an itinerary of painting and sculpture, Wuppertal; and Ursprung (Origin) at Galerie L, a solo exhibition of painting in Moenchengladbach, Dusseldorf, in 1996. In March 2002, the fourteenth-century gallery spaces of the Sala di Bramante in Piazza del Popolo (Rome) hosts an anthology of his paintings from 1990 to 1996, sponsored by the Department of Political Culture of Rome. April 2002, he has an invitation from the Department of Political Culture of Prato to exhibit in the show: Origine (Origins/Beginnings). This is to be the start of his last phase of research. In 2003, it is the moment to write. Grottesi starts working on his auto-biography that will be published two years later by Pieraldo Editore, Roma. In April 2006 the book is presented, on the initiative of the then Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni and the councillor Gianni Borgna, in the Sala Pietro da Cortona on the Capitoline Hill. In May 2010, the new MAXXI Museum is inaugurated by Achille Bonito Oliva who also curates an exclusive presentation of the video installation Esperienze 1968 (Experience 1968) by all members of Il Gruppo di Via Brunetti. In September of 2011, Grottesi is invited to present his short film Zoomtrack at the 68th Venice International Film Festival retrospective of Italian Research Cinema  ‘Orizzonti Anni 1961-1978’(Horizons The Years 1961-1978). In 2012, La Cineteca Nazionale and Il Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome dedicate a ‘Grottesi Day’ with a screening of his 2010 film Oltre at the Cinema Trevi. Also in 2012, the Antico Palazzo della Pretura in Castel’Arquato hosts a solo show I Magazzini della Memoria 1968-2012 (The Memory Store 1968-2002) with a screening of the same film. In 2012 D. Farina’s historical documentary film on various artists – Anarchitaly – is screened at the VII Edizione del Festival del Film di Roma. In May 2013 he is at Palazzo Trinci in Foligno with the performance piece Colazione sull’Erba (Picnic on the Grass). There follows the screening of his film Time on the Isola del Cinema. Also in 2013, in Rome, he realises the film Controvento (Against the Wind). In 2014 he shows his film Oltre at the Galleria Angelica during their exhibition Natura Notturna. In March 2015, the first screening of his film Un Tocco di Colore (A Touch of Colour) takes place at Cinema Azzurro in Via Scipioni, Rome. May 6, 2016, his new film Galleria del Tempo (Gallery of Time) is released, the first screening at Cinema Azzurro. Also at Cinema Azzurro, in October 2017, he has his first screening of Roma la Toppa. The 1st December 2017 the film Oltre is screened in memory of his beloved Mariolina, wife and life companion who died in March of the same year. In 2018, the film Respiro dell’Orso (The Breath of the Bear) is released and there is the exhibition Paesaggi della Memoria (Landscapes of Memory) held at the Galleria Angelica in Rome. In February 2019 he hosts his last show Altre Visioni (Other Visions) at the Virus Gallery, Rome. Three months later, in May, Il Giudizio Strappato (Torn Judgement), his last film, is screened for the first time at the Cinema Azzurro, Rome.

‘Il grande maestro’ passes away the 17 January 2020.