About the Artist

Sandro Trotti is a multi-awarded, internationally renowned Artist and currently one of the most influential Western artists in China. Born in 1934, he is reputed by many art historians and art critics as one of the greatest European Figurative Art Painters. Besides the many exhibitions held in museums and galleries all around the world, he has some permanent artwork at The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, at the Vatican Museums in the Vatican City, at Rome’s National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art and at The Goya Museum, in Zaragoza.

Although during the early stages of his career he benefited from the guidance of some of the greatest Italian Artists of the beginning of 1900, Trotti’s art practice was primarily self-taught. He focused his extensive career on the search for artistic identity and on mastering his Art. In doing so, he refused to be framed into a commercially identifiable category to pursue the experimentation of new themes, techniques and styles. Currently he is one of the few living Artists whose practice revolves uniquely around life-painting and life-drawing but his career boasts a great variety of stages which explore from abstract to the figurative. His innumerable travels, from West to East, provided his Art with unique elements and details rich in elegance and symbolism. He contributed intensely to shape the Italian Art world of the 1900s.

During the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1966-1976, a great part of China's cultural heritage was partly and completely erased from the memory and the archives of the People of China. Mao Zedong's plan was to replace every form of old belief with a new one which had to be in compliance with the new government ideals. Consequently Art has been one of the ways in which the Political Party was reinforcing its beliefs. 

After the Cultural Revolution, China tried to embrace new Art influences coming from the West and it started recruiting guiding figures who could help The People of China to restore their past. Therefore in 2000, Sandro Trotti was called by the Chinese Authorities to teach in the Chinese Leading Academies in order to help Art Institutions to gain the confidence in the art practice and to restore the tradition which they had lost during a time of turmoil and identity crisis.

For the last 20 years Sandro Trotti has been teaching in the 8 most important Academies of China, training high profile cultural figures such as Academy professors and University Directors. Among the many prestigious Institutions in which he had the honour to teach, it emerges Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts which awarded him with the lifetime title of Honorary Professor.

In the past 13 years Trotti has been teaching primarily in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, where he has been given the privilege of having both the Academy's Institute of research and a new permanent Museum named after him. His success, as one the main representatives of Occidental Art in China, is not only due to his extraordinary innate talent but also to the fact that he has been the first Westerner artist who has been allowed to teach in China for such a length of time.

He is now fully approved by the Chinese cultural political party who gave him a lifetime permanent residency in the city of Guangzhou.

Exhibitions & Awards

Events & Awards

1960 - National Award for Painting in Latina, Italy

1960 - Premio Avezzano Award, 1st prize

1963 - San Fidelli Award in Milan, Italy

1963 - International Art exhibition, Civitella Roveto, Italy

1966 - Pordenone Award, Bologna, Italy

1969 - Termoli Award, Molise, Italy

1971 - Manlio Critelli publishes book of Trotti’s nudes

1973 - Commissioned an Oil Painting by The Croatian Government for The Museum of Skopje

1979 - Museum of Dunkerque, France purchases Nudo Bianco 

1981 - Uffizi in Florence selects one of Trotti’s portraits for permanent exhibition in the Corridoio Vasariano

1985 - Invited to Baghdad by the Iraqi Government to commission a painting

1986 - Presents at anthological exhibition of graphics named ‘50 Italian Artists in Egypt’

1989 - Received the Pandosia prize for VIII Pandosia painting prize

1992 - Vladmir Maksimov’s review on Sandro Trotti in the essay ‘the secret of the rainbow’

1996 - Awarded as meritorious citizen by Fermo’s Savings Bank in Monte Urano

1997 - Chaired the commission of the International Art Biennial Exhibition for upcoming Artists

1999 - Inaugurated Shanghai Art Fair

1999 - Appointed professor of History of Art at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in Guangzhou

2016 - Awarded for Art donations by Senate of Marche

2018 - Inauguration of the 'Sandro Trotti Museum' and the 'Sandro Trotti Institute of Research' in Guangzhou

2021 - ‘Le Cattedrali Letterali Europeee’ Award

Exhibitions


1956 - Galleria Portonovo, Roma

1956 - Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma - First Annual Exhibit of Artists Living in Rome

1960 - Galleria La Medusa, Roma

1960 - VIII Quadriennale, Roma

1960 - Turin, Italy - 13th 'Quattro Soli' Show (Group Exhibition with Bloc, Dorazio, Turcato, Vedova…)

1961 - Galleria L’Indiano, Firenze

1961 - Il Traghetto, Venezia

1963 - Sante Monachesi, Galleria San Marco, Roma -  (Trotti Presents)

1966 - Galleria Il Bilico, Roma (Presented by Emilio Villa)

1966 - Galleria Il Cancello, Bologna

1967 - Art-Agency Gallery, Napoli

1967 - Galleria Molino, Roma

1968 - Galleria Numero, Firenze

1968 - Galleria Arte Centro, Milano

1968 - Galleria C29, Macerata

1969 - Galleria Poliedro, Roma

1970 - Galleria d’Arte Lo Spazio, Roma

1970 - Galleria della Balduina, Roma

1973 - Galleria Delta, Roma

1973 - Galleria d'Arte Cairola, Milano - Oil Nude Series

1973 - Arts Centre ID-Interior Design, Roma

1973 - Urnina Gallery, Damascus Syria

1974 - Galleria Helioart, Roma

1974 - Galleria Bruzia, Calabria

1975 - Galleria 165, Roma

1975 - Galleria Settala, Milano

1975 - Galleria Ottocento 18, Pescara

1976 - Galleria d'Arte "Il Grillo", Monterotondo-Roma

1977 - Galleria Vittoria, Roma - Geraniums - (Presented by Davide Lajolo)

1977 - Galleria Il Babuino, Roma

1977 - Galleria Bottega del Quadro, Ostia

1977 - New Gallery, Catania 

1979 - Galleria Baphomet, Firenze

1979 - Galleria L’Ariete, Porto San Giorgio - Itinerari Orientali

1979 - Vicolo del Quartirolo, Bologna

1980 - Galleria Orsa Minore, Roma

1980 - Galleria Morabito, Calabria 

1981 - Galleria Schema Z, Roma

1982 - Palazzo Bosdari, Ancona

1982 - Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Ancona

1982 - Galleria d’Arte Barillo, Porto San Giorgio

1983 - Galleria Zizzari - Le Dormienti

1983 - Galleria AG, Ascoli Piceno

1984 - Via Margutta 102 Gallery, Roma - Omaggio a Trotti

1985 - III Contemporary Graphics Biennial, Marano Marchesato

1985 - Palazzo Dei Diamanti, Ferrara - (Curated by Franco Farina and Carmine Benincasa)

1985 - Philadelphia Art Museum, Philadelphia

1986 - Sao Paulo, Brazil

1986 - Galleria Ca d’Oro’s, Roma

1986 - Galleria Canovaccio’s, Roma - Pensando al Canova

1986 - Tones and Writing in Nizza Town Hall, Sicily - White Nude

1987 - Art Gallery 102, Roma

1988 - Galleria Il Gianicolo, Perugia

1988 - Galleria L’Agostiniana, Roma - Sacred Art - Homage to Madonna from the Artists

1988 - 1st Graphics Biennial Exhibition in Crete, Greece

1990 - Graphics Biennial Exhibition in Athens, Greece

1991 - Centro La Sponda, Roma

1992 - Studio Val Cervo Gallery, Roma

1992 - St Petersburg, Russia

1992 - Monumental Complex of San Michele a Ripa, Rome 

1993 - San Ginesio (MC) in XVI century Morichelli d’Altemps Palace

1993 - Galleria Il Quadriportico, Roma

1995 - Galleria Della Tartaruga, Roma

1998 - Ascoli Piceno and Monte Urano

2000 - Galleria arti e Mestieri, Porto San Giorgio

2002 - Galleria Della Tartaruga, Roma

2003 - Retrospective Exhibitions in Hungary, Austria and Slovenia

2005 - Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, Guangzhou

2006 - Beijing National Museum, Beijing

2006 - Sancai Gallery in DongFang Hotel, Guangzhou - The Art Exhibition of Trotti: Professor of Accademia Di Belle Arti Di Roma

2006 - Museo Villa S.Carlo Borromeo di Senago, Milano

2006 - National Museum of China, Beijing

2006 - Museo S.Pietro di Assisi, Assisi

2007 - Cultural Section of The Egyptian Embassy

2008 - Goza Gallery, Bratislava

2008 - Galleria Municipali d’Arte, Ascoli Piceno

2009 - Galleria Cortona, Milano

2010 - Museo Goya di Fuendetodos, Zaragoza - 'Surco Marchigiano'

2011 - Shenzhen International Art Fair, Shenzhen

2011 - 54th Venice Biennale, Italy

2013 - Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou - Anchor - Symphony

2014 - Guangzhou Yue Xi College, Guangzhou - Endless Poetic

2018 - Exhibition at the I.R.I Museum Collection, Rome

2018 - Gu Yuan Museum of Art, Zuhai - ‘China - 10 years’

2018 - Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, Zuhai - ‘China - 10 years’

2018 - Fanyuan Art Gallery, Beijing - ‘China - 10 years’

2019 - Li Zijian Art Museum, Changsha - 'Blending and Collision' Exhibition

2021 - Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts’ University Library - ‘Can’t Sleep Tonight’

2021 - Italian Institute of Culture in Bruxelles, Belgium - ‘Frammenti del Mondo di Sandro Trotti’

2022 - Italian Institute of Culture in Stuttgart, Germany - ‘Uno Sguardo sulla Cultura delle Marche’

2023 - Exhibition in Gigli Palace in Marche - ‘Trotti Mania’