folk

Oil on panel by acclaimed outsider artist, Bruno Del Favero (b. Italy 1910, d. USA 1995), circa 1970.
Fine example showcasing Del Favero’s aptitude for creating fantastical landscapes. Adding out of place animals (in this case, jungle animals and sharks) to an otherwise believable sea-side cottage setting, creates an imaginary context removed from reality. Additionally, proportion and perspective are distorted, keeping with the Naïve style for which Del Favero was known. Though it’s worth noting his techniques, including color combination and fabrication of texture, rise above, even transcend art world genres such as “outsider” and “folk”.
Signed on verso and LL.
H 24.75″ x W 48.5″ x D 1″

Bio from the Philadelphia Museum of Art:
Born Princeton, Michigan, 1910; died Greenwich, Connecticut, 1995
Bruno Del Favero moved from Michigan to northern Italy with his parents at age five, returning in 1928 and settling in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he married and remained for the rest of his days. He made his living as a mason, chauffeur, and landscape gardener. It is not known exactly when or why he began to paint his delicate and mysterious landscapes, but he was exhibiting in local art shows by the early 1970s and took himself seriously enough as an artist to join the Greenwich Art Society. He maintained a studio in the basement of his home, but never shared his art with his wife and five children. After the artist’s death his family introduced his work to New York dealers Shari Cavin and Randall Morris in the late 1990s. Del Favero’s first one-man show outside Greenwich was held at the Cavin-Morris Gallery in 1998.