Hugo Daini

Hugo Daini
Hugo Daini
Born	14 July 1919; Rome, Italy
Died	26 December 1976 (aged 57); Caracas, Venezuela
Nationality	Italian
Education	Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma
Occupation	Sculptor
Spouse	Maria Grazia Daini (m. 1950)
Children	4

Hugo Daini (28 January 1919 – 26 December 1976) was an Italian sculptor mainly active in Venezuela in the second half of the twentieth century. A main part of his career is related to monumental work related to the Simón Bolívar iconography and traditional heroic statuary, of which he left significant examples in London, Caracas and other cities of Venezuela. In his individual works, he played with the human figure joining sculptural dynamism with empty spaces.

Biography[edit]

Hugo Daini was born in Rome on January the 28th, son of a Carabinieri officer and ex-member of the Italia Legation in China. His grandfather's passion for art shaped his first years, visiting monuments in Rome and starting portraying his grandmother since the age of 9. He began studying art at the age of 12, attending art courses for adolescents at the Scuola d'Arte Sacra dell'Oratorio di San Pietro. Then at the age of 14 he starts working as an assistant to the sculptors Torquato Tamagnini and Lorenzo Ferri in Rome. In 1939 he begins his studies in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, where he graduates in 1946. In between he joins the Italian army as a parachuter during WWII. In 1947 he starts working as an Art teacher in the artistic High School associated with the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome until the following year, and starts again his collaboration with the sculptor Lorenzo Ferri in the execution of a nativity scene in Vaticano. Always in 1947 he obtains a scholarship from the Minister of Education of Italy and exhibits for his first time at the Galleria II Cortile in Rome, and then the following year obtains another scholarship from the Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano (Italian sports national institution) and participates at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, where art competition was one of the Disciplines.^[1] He represents Italy together with Greco and Mazzacurati with his sculpture Japanese Wrestlers in Art Exhibition category at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In 1949 he moves to Venezuela, settling in Caracas and ramping up his career by becoming a well known sculptor for monuments and small/mid sculptures with an expressionist tendency. His Equestrian statues of Simón Bolívar and other Venezuelan historical figures are displayed in Caracas, Brussels, Santo Domingo, London and main Venezuelan cities. In between a various number of individual exhibitions in Caracas, London and Montreal, and individual prizes.

He dies in Caracas on the 26th of December of 1976.

His daughter Rita (1954) and his son Rudy (1951) also became artists.

Works[edit]

The works of Hugo Daini can be divided into two main types. First the Monumental work of the classical heroic iconography; mainly associated with Venezuela historical figures with bronze monuments ranging from 2 to 4 mt and a linear and formal style, never excessive and partially influenced by Cubism. Then the Individual bronze sculptures, mostly influenced by an Expressionist tendency, with different subjects and a different conception of volume and spaces.

Public Works and Monuments[edit]

Hugo Daini's Monumental works starts a few years after his arrival in Venezuela with the monological statue of Simón Bolívar at the Exposición Objetiva Nacional in Caracas, in 1952. From there and for the next 20 years he crafts over 30 exceptional works including bronze statues and reliefs which are displayed in squares, avenues and building in Caracas, main Venezuelan cities and abroad. This line of work is associated with the traditional heroic statues with a particular reference to the Venezuelan historical figures, from Simón Bolívar to Francisco de Miranda. His Monumental works are characterised by a very formal definition, which is never excessive but straight to the point. The style denotes sobriety, however never lacking attention to details. From the definition fo the lines and shapes it's possible to understand his initial influence by Cubism. Among some notable examples of the Venezuelan historical figures stream we have the standing statue of Simón Bolívar in Belgrave Square, London (1972), the 5 equestrian statues of Simón Bolívar (1964) and the Francisco de Miranda standing statue in Caracas (1968). A more broad work is the contribution to Paseo Los Próceres (Boulevard for the National Heroes), where he crafted a series of reliefs representing steps of the Venezuela history and independency, and a series of military statues (1957). Perhaps one of the most important examples of his public work is the Monument to the Founders,^[2] erected in Cumaná in 1966, which transitions the style to his private and individual works.

Main Monumental works[edit]

Estatua Monolítica de Simón Bolívar (chalk, 9m, 1952, Caracas)
Fuente, estatuas y relieves del Paseo los Próceres (marble, 1957, Caracas)
Relieve Casa de Italia (marble, 1957, Caracas)
Mural de Ladrillos Edificio Diana (1959, Caracas)
Santiago Mariño (bronze, 3m, 1960, Turmero)
Agustín Codazzi (bronze, 2.10m, 1963, Caracas, Barquisimieto)
José Antonio Páez (bronze, 3m, 1964, Acarigua)
Simón Bolívar equestrian (bronze, 3m, 1964-65, Píritu Barinas, Colón, Santo Domingo, Brussels)
Monument to the Founders (bronze, 4m, 1965-66, Cumaná)
Simón Bolívar (bronze, 2.4m, 1973, London)

Paseo Los Próceres, 1957
Francisco de Miranda, 1968
Simón Bolívar Monolitica 1952
Santiago Mariño, 1960
Simón Bolívar, 1964
Simón Bolívar 1963
Agustín Codazzi 1963
Monumento al Soldado Venezolano, 1971
Casa de Italia, 1957

Individual Works[edit]

The main concept of his works is the contraposition between space, emptiness, figures and volumes. He is eliminating part of the volume, substituting it with spaces and negative forms which the imagination has to fill, creating emptiness and defying gravity. Daini's main character is the human figure which embeds a humanistic analysis. The result is a dynamic and light style, conceptual but never abstract.