Maria Callegaro

Maria Callegaro was born on the Euganean Hills, in the province of Padua, on December 8, 1919. She comes from a humble and numerous family (eight children) and the grandmother. The father is a woodcutter, and Maria spends her childhood helping the family. She studies until the fourth grade and at the age of twelve she attends the cutting and sewing course for six months, earning a diploma. Maria spends her adolescence between domestic activities, caring for younger brothers and afternoon work in tailoring. At 16 she meets Mario (four years older), who will soon become her husband. With the birth of their first daughter, Maria, at 19, moved to Bolzano, where Mario worked as a barber. Its war time, they have to make long lines to grab a living. In 1942 the second child was born. Tired of a life constantly at risk under bombing, Maria moved with her family to Padua at her in-laws. With great sorrow she separated herself from her son, considered too small to travel, who stayed with his grandmother. At the end of the war in 1947, Maria returned with her family to Bolzano where she remained for 20 years more. In 1967 Maria and Mario decided to move to Milan to live near their son. In the early 1980s, Mario became ill with Alzheimer, being constantly assisted by his wife under the guidance of a specialist. Specialist who invited her to try painting. Since 1995 Maria has started a frenetic pictorial activity that will lead her to produce over 500 works. Classifiable among the “mediumistic visionaries”, Maria creates accompanied by a rich dream work. Her opera sees the intertwining of autobiographical themes and religious ideas, the Apocalypse mixes with the small catastrophes that affect man and nature. In 2005, following the death of her husband, she decided to return to Bolzano, where a niece could take care of her. She died in 2013.

Selected  exhibitions:

2019 – “Maria Callegaro and Alessandro Santoro. Margins of the sky”, Maroncelli 12 Gallery, Milan       

2019 – Outsider Art Fair, represented by Maroncelli 12 Gallery, Paris

2006 – “Longevi visionari. The painting of Maria Callegaro Perozzo and Contemporary Art”, curated by Bianca Tosatti, Museo Ala Ponzone, Cremona