Giancarlo Vitali

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.