Giovanni MOLTENI (Cantù 1898 – Sorengo 1990)
He trained as a self-taught artist under the guidance of the painter Ugo Bernasconi and, after the experience of the First World War, he moved to Milan where he frequented Carlo Carrà, Arturo Martini, Mario Sironi and Arturo Tosi.
A fundamental part of his artistic and emotional development was his participation in the expedition of the airship Italia to the North Pole, which earned him the nickname “painter of the Arctic”. In the 1930s he regularly took part in the exhibitions of the Permanente in Milan. In 1933 he took part in the IV Art Exhibition of the Fascist Regional Union of Fine Arts of Lombardy at the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan.
During the Anglo-American bombings of Milan in 1943, his studio was almost entirely destroyed, along with his works. In 1949, the Galleria del Milione in Milan dedicated a solo exhibition to him, the monograph of which contained a note by Carlo Carrà. In 1952 Molteni was invited to the International Exhibition of Watercolors from 1800 to 1950 held in Delft, as a representative of Italy, together with Giorgio Morandi, Gino Severini, Filippo De Pisis and Arturo Tosi. Exhibitions followed in Lugano, Paris and regularly at the Biennale di Brera, the Permanente and the National Art Exhibitions.