La Sarten

Giorgio Gori was born in Paris, France, on June 1, 1910, to a family of Italian origin, and he later became a naturalized Venezuelan citizen. He never married and had no children. He received his early artistic training in Florence, Italy, where he studied with the painter A. Bastianini and the architect Chiaramonti, and later attended the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris between 1927 and 1934, acquiring skills in painting, sculpture, and stage design. These formative years in both Florence and Paris gave him a solid grounding in classical technique while exposing him to the modern currents of the French capital.

In July 1949, Gori settled in Venezuela, a country where he would spend the rest of his life and develop the bulk of his career. His work as a painter moved through two principal phases: an early realist period with nativist content, characterized by stylized forms and represented by La Anunciación criolla, which earned him the National Prize for Painting at the XVI Official Salon in 1955; and a later abstract-informalist phase, marked by the use of textures and acrylics. As a sculptor, he produced bronzes, portraits, historical figures, and reliefs, and his monument Genio itálico was exhibited at the International Exposition in Paris. In 1954 he received the National Prize for Sculpture at the XV Official Salon for Maternidad, a bronze relief from 1946 now in the collection of the Galería de Arte Nacional.

Gori was also active as a creator of stained glass, working with decorative effects and erotic themes. In 1973 he completed the stained-glass window La Conversión de san Ignacio and the sculpture of Saint Ignatius of Loyola for the Chapel of Parque Central in Caracas. Among his public monuments in Venezuela are the Busto del general José Félix Ribas at the Ministry of Defense (Caracas, 1951), the Monumento al generalísimo Francisco de Miranda in Plaza Miranda, Los Teques (1954), and the Monumento a la batalla de Boyacá on Avenida Boyacá, Caracas (1971). He exhibited individually in Milan, Florence, Paris, and Caracas, with his final solo show at Galería Siete Siete in Caracas in 1980, featuring a series of erotic fruits. His numerous awards include a bronze medal at the Salon des Artistes Français (1930), first prize at the International Medal Competition at La Monnaie in Paris (1935), the National Prize for Sculpture (1954), the National Prize for Painting (1955), and first prize at the Mobil painting competition in Caracas (1965).

Giorgio Gori died in Caracas on December 13, 1990. He is remembered as a versatile artist who contributed significantly to twentieth-century Venezuelan art in painting, sculpture, and stained glass, and as one of the few figures to have won the National Prize in both painting and sculpture.