Costalonga Franco
Franco Costalonga (Venice, 1933). He began his training as a self-taught, attending only later the local School of Art, where he followed the teachings of Remigio Butera. After making his debut as an engraver and aquafortis, obtaining the first prize at the 50th Collective of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice, he approached the painting, developing a vast series of paintings, characterised, in a subtle chromatic modulation focused on the red and pink, with a free and airy expression of elegant graphics of mediated Licinian and Wolsian origin.
In the second half of the sixties, after joining the Dialectic of Trends Group, Costalonga will then develop, through the use of new materials, original tensioned surfaces, generating three-dimensional shapes. These new procedures will later bring him closer to Bruno Munari, president of the "Sette-Veneto" group, in connection with the Sincron Operational Center of Brescia, directed by Armando Nizzi, thus deepening his interests for the new kinetic-visual experiences. For these new creations, in 1967 Costalonga was awarded at the 55th Collective of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, while the following year, one of his works "Chromo-kinetic-sphere object" made of plexiglass became part of the Guggenheim Collection.