Bruno Caruso

Il Cane/The Dog (1932) Ink Drawing textured with Needlepoint.

Bruno Caruso was born in Palermo, on August 8, 1927, to Giuseppe Caruso and Maria Cucco.[9] As a child he learned to draw under the tutelage of his father, mainly copying the work of classical masters like Leonardo Da Vinci, Pisanello and Andrea Mantegna.[10] His first collection of drawings was completed at age 5 (1931–32); a bestiary featuring 'Il Cane' (1932), a meticulously crafted drawing of a dog, textured by needlepoint (see image).

Caruso's early influences were the famous Orto botanico di Palermo and Monreale Cathedral, but as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War and eventually World War II ignited, he turned his attention to depicting the horror and isolation of war. At age 19 he left Italy for the second time to visit Munich and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, where he was profoundly affected by the work of Gustav Klimt and George Grosz.

Immediately after the end of World War II, Caruso signed up to study Law at the University of Palermo. He earned a living by writing dissertations for exchange students, and claimed to have submitted over 100 successful papers during his time at the university.[11] Having completed his own Law degree, he began a second degree in Classics, but dropped out following a dispute over the faculty's decision to award an honorary degree to a notorious (but unnamed) Sicilian-American celebrity.[12]

In 1948 Caruso took his first trip to Prague where, confronted by the Nazi atrocities of World War II, he completed his first official collection entitled "Deutschland über alles", after George Grosz.[13]

In 1953 Caruso received a commission from the Sicilian Government to create Sicilia, a magazine series celebrating Sicilian art and culture. As Artistic Director, Caruso was charged with setting up one of the first modern printing presses in Sicily, and forging strong relationships with artists, intellectuals and photographers from around the world, including Richard Avedon, Herbert List and Brassai.[14] In 1974 the magazine created a special edition in honour of Caruso, featuring a bespoke cover and 117 of his drawings.[15]

The early success of Sicilia caught the eye of Irene Brin and Gaspero del Corso, founders of the Galleria dell'Obelisco in Rome, a famous hub for Italy's artistic elite. Caruso became the director of the gallery's publishing arm and struck up close friendships with poets De Liberto, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Leonardo Sinisgalli, and painters Ben Shahn, Fabrizio Clerici, Colombotto Rosso and Renzo Vespignani.[16]

He also published the first books on The Triumph of Death (Palermo), Italian sculptor Giacomo Serpotta and German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden.[17]

Caruso's association with the Galleria dell'Obelisco led to his first major solo show in 1953, followed by his first monograph in 1954, curated by Leonardo Sinisgalli. The collection made Caruso's name internationally, featuring what Sinisgalli labelled "a tiny universe of jugglers, sleep-walkers, acrobats, time-wasters, street urchins and craftsmen darting around cheerfully like fish caught in the net of a tragic, silent and unstable world",[18]

He had his first solo show in London at the Arthur Jeffress Gallery in 1955, and saw his work appear in the collections of celebrated patrons of the arts across the United States like Helena Rubenstein, Larry Aldrich, Richard Avedon, Walter Bareiss, Eric Estorick, Joan Whitney Payson, Stanley J. Seeger and John Hay Whitney.[19]

• 
  Uomo Arrampicato/Climbing Man (1955). Oil, 90x90.
• 
  Suonatori ambulanti/Wandering Musicians (1953). Oil, 60x50. Nathan Cummings Collection, Chicago.
• 
  Gelataio/Ice Cream Seller (1953). Oil, 60x50. Formerly in the Helena Rubenstein Collection, New York
• 
  Uomo sdraiato/Man Lying Down (1952). Ink Drawing. Formerly in the Olivetti Collection, Rome
• 
  Giornalaio/The News Stand (1952). Ink Drawing. Formerly in the Renato Giani Collection, Rome
• 
  Deposito/Wood Deposit (1952). Ink Drawing. Private Collection, Baltimore

Reflection of Bruno Caruso photographing a guerilla fighter.

Back in Sicily, Caruso struck up a friendship with Girolamo Li Causi, leader of the Italian Communist Party, and began actively supporting the local peasant revolts. He completed a collection on the Portella della Ginestra massacre, and campaigned actively for the cultural emancipation of Sicily against the rise of the Mafia.[20] His fight against the endemic corruption in Italian politics climaxed in the 1970s when he was fighting three concurrent legal cases against Michele Sindona, Giovanni Gioia and Vito Ciancimino.[21]

Throughout the 1950s he worked at Palermo's Psychiatric Hospital (the Real Casa dei Matti di Palermo), producing a damning series of studies highlighting the use of medieval curing techniques and abject conditions in the wards, contributing to a major overhaul of the system.[22] He returned to this theme throughout his career in collections like Manicomio (1969) and La Real Casa dei Matti (1975).[23]

Over the following years Caruso travelled extensively to Iran, India, Thailand and Japan, studying Persian calligraphy and completing a series of drawings on dictatorships, famine, and the threat of nuclear warfare.[24] These drawings formed part of four collections; Il Pugno di ferro / The Iron Fist (1962); Pace in terra / Peace on Earth (1963); Totum procedit ex amore (1964); and La Tigre di carta / The Paper Tiger (1964).

He returned to the United States in the month of the Kennedy assassination, guest of Jack Levine, Tennessee Williams and Ben Shahn. On this trip he completed commissions for Time, Fortune and Life magazines and, inspired by a meeting with Malcolm X, began work on Americana (1968) in which he championed the Civil Rights Movement and stood against the Vietnam War.[25]

The fight against the Vietnam War became one of Caruso's most active political stands. He was invited to Hanoi by Phạm Văn Đồng, the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and edited four books in support of their plight, including Vietnam: Biographia e documenti sull'aggressione imperialistica contro il popolo Vietnamita (1972). In 1972 he illustrated the last testament of Ho Chi Minh.

• 
  Malcolm (1959). Ink Drawing for Americana.
• 
  La corsa pazza/The Lunatic Run (1954). Ink and watercolour.
• 
  Eichmann (1954). Ink Drawing for Pace in terra.
• 
  Rivolta/Revolt (1961). Ink Drawing, 63x50.
• 
  Ammazziamo chi ci pare e piace/We Kill Whoever we Please (1963). Ink Drawing for Pace in terra
• 
  Il complesso di colpa/The Guilt Complex (1964). Ink Drawing for Franz Kafka's The Penal Colony.

Bruno Caruso's last drawing (2018). Pencil on paper. Completed in his hospital bed shortly before his death.

Bruno Caruso died on 4 November 2018 at the Regina Margherita hospice in Rome. He was 91 years old. Days before his death his son, Roberto Caruso, gave him a pencil and paper and, despite having refused to work for almost two years, he completed one final drawing; a melted, disfigured face (see image).[26]

Leoluca Orlando, the Mayor of Palermo, paid tribute to Caruso's career saying;

"The death of Bruno Caruso marks the disappearance of one of the most sensitive and committed figures in the artistic and cultural panorama of our city. A man whose unmistakable style always highlighted social issues, and gave voice to those who needed it most, right up until the last."[27]