Antonio Salemme

Antonio Salemme moved with his family to Newton, Massachusetts in 1904. At the age of thirteen he began his studies at the Eric Pape Art School and continued later at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School studying with George L. Noyes. While in Boston he began to study sculpture, and, in 1910, continued his study in Spain and France. He then studied in Rome in 1912 as a protege of Angelo Zanelli. From 1915 to 1919, Salemme served in the Italian Army and returned to the United States at the end of the war. He worked exclusively as a sculptor until the 1930´s at which time he again took up painting in addition to sculpting. He received the Guggenheim Fellowship for sculpture in 1932 and 1936. During his first fellowship, Salemme studied for two years in Paris and at the Salon des Tuilleries exhibited his ´´Negro Spiritual´´ for which renowned actor Paul Robeson posed. French sculptor Despeau deemed the piece a ´´superior work of art.´´ During the 1920´s and 1930´s, Salemme taught painting and sculpting and was the Director of the WPA Mural Project in 1935. Salemme´s works have been exhibited over the last seventy years mainly in New York and Paris. Most of his exhibits were during the 1920´s and 1930´s. A resurgence of his gallery exhibits occurred in the 1960´s.