Martino Fiorattini

Martino Fiorattini was born in Casteldidone (a small town between Cremona and Mantua) in 1928. He died in Casalmaggiore (Cremona) in 1997. A mild yet sociable character, Martino was born in a farmers family, the only of three children who did not emigrate. For no reason after he was fifty years old, he started to paint in spite of the whole town considering it to be rather odd. Now he is on his own path of self-taught artist, and he will keep painting unrelentlessly until the end of his days. He is married to Francesca Delvò and he picks up the brush seriously only in the beginning of the 80s when his three children are growing old (Maurilio, born in 1955; Paola, in 1957; Angela, 62). He cultivates melons when he suddenly starts to reduce his work in the fields and picks up the brush with a lot of passion. He first discovers Ligabue, then Picasso and, who knows how, Van Gogh, the Fauve movement and the Die Brüke painters: all of those contribute to the explosion of that magical world with colours and forms that have been inside of him till that moment. He is referred to as visionario padano” (visionary of the Po valley) due to his thick brushwork and its dazzling colours used to paint the environment, that small slice of land animated by animals and plants. Martino does not sell his paintings, he works just following an interior need. He “tells” his pieces, sometimes giving those to friends as a gift.

Selected exhibitions

2018 – Martino Fiorattini. Between melons and mosquitos”, solo exhibition, Gaia Museum Outsider Art, Randers, Denmark

2018 – “Martino Fiorattini. Tra meloni e zanzare”, solo exhibition, Maroncelli 12, Milan 2016

2016 Outsider Art Fair, represented by Maroncelli 12 Gallery, Paris

2015 “Martino Fiorattini. Visionario padano”, solo exhibition, Museo Diotti, Casalmaggiore, Cremona

Selected collections

Gaia Museum Outsider Art, Randers, Denmark

Casa dellArt Brut, Mairano di Casteggio (Pavia)