Giancarlo Vitali (29 November 1929 – 25 July 2018) was an Italian painter and engraver. Biography Vitali was born in Bellano, on Lake Como, into a family of fishermen. He began painting when he was fifteen, after having worked at the Institute of Graphic Arts of Bergamo. In 1947 he exhibited his first work at the Angelicum Gallery in Milan, on the occasion of the biennial exhibition of sacred art. In the following edition in 1949, the two works he exhibited, Visitazione and Cena in Emmaus, were met with great appreciation by Carlo Carrà. Vitali was awarded a fellowship from the Brera Academy in Milan but because he wasn't able to support himself he was force to reject it. In 1981 his son Velasco Vitali, also a painter, encouraged Giancarlo to start working as an engraver. In 1983 critic and writer Giovanni Testori, expressed the wish to meet Vitali after seeing one of his paintings depicting a quartered rabbit. The meeting generated a profound and solid relationship, founded on mutual esteem and admiration, which later became a long deep-rooted friendship. In 1984 Testori wrote an article about Vitai's work in the third page of Corriere della Sera and went on to organize his first solo exhibition at La Compagnia del Disegno in Milan. Vitali would later have several exhibitions in public and private institutions and released a series of catalogues and engravings portfolios. At the end of the 1980s he realized many public art works, including The Portrays of Benefactors at Ospedale Maggiore in Milan commissioned by the Foundation Ca' Granda. Exhibitions 2008 - "Giancarlo Vitali and Mario Botta", curated by Carlo Bertelli, A.N.C.E. building, Lecco. 2007 - "Giancarlo Vitali: Works", IIC, Madrid 2005 - "Cartella Clinica: Chronicle of an Unsought Sojourn", Aula Magna of the Ospedale di Lecco. 2003 - "L'Oltranza della pittura: In memory of Giovanni Testori", Spazio Cinquesensi, Milan. 2002 - "La musica dipinta: Drawings and Oils", Spazio Cinquesensi, Milan. 2001 - "D'après", Arsmedia, Bergamo; in 2002 the exhibition was presented, with further drawings and oils, at Compagnia del Disegno, Milan. 2000 - "Il Paese del Pittore", Spazi industriali dell'ex Cotonificio Cantoni, Bellano. 2000 - "Lunario Minimo", organized by the Comune di Cento in collaboration with Promoart, Chiesa sconsacrata di San Lorenzo, Ferrara. 1999 - "Giancarlo Vitali", curated by Giancarlo Consonni, Palazzo Sormani Milan. 1999 - "Le stagioni della Vita", curated by Domenico Montalto, The Cantico gallery